The head of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group, Taulant Balla, says that Sali Berisha, Agron Shehaj, Adriatik Lapaj and Arlind Qori have gradually appropriated the student protest. Invited this Wednesday to the show “Koha Jonë-Debat” with Nikoll Lesi, Balla stressed that in democracy, governance is determined not by protests but by votes. “Squares do not determine who governs and who is in opposition. The vote determines that”, Balla said. He also denied the Socialist Party’s involvement in dividing the protest and condemned acts of violence against the State Police, describing them as intolerable.
Excerpts from the debate
Balla: Even in Albania there will be parties that emerge from the protests, and you have said so very well. I told them to form parties. In the system we have chosen, squares no longer determine who governs and who is in opposition. The vote determines that. Of course, squares carry great weight before elections, like on Friday. To tell you the truth, in Serbia on Thursday, at the campaign rally, I understood that the Students’ List had won the elections, since there were 500,000 people there. But even so, they did not stop the process on Thursday, since there were 500,000 people in the square, and the elections will not be held on Sunday. But we must wait, because movements of this nature are temporary, and once they take responsibility for governing, it is something else. Currently, they have stolen the protest little by little: Sali first, Agron Shehaj second, Lapaj third and Qori fourth. And these four are also responsible for those acts of violence.
Lesi: As the PS, did you not get your hands into the protest to divide it?
Balla: Where?
Lesi: Perhaps you don’t have the information, but there are hands from power in the protest, trying to divide it.
Balla: I am the head of the Socialist Party’s parliamentary group, and I declare to you with responsibility that it is not in the nature of the PS to involve people. You know that today 90% of television airtime in Albania is taken by the protest and the opposition. Do you know that today 90% of televisions are against the government?
Lesi: Those television stations to which you granted building permits and tourist resorts, which you pampered, and which now come out against you, they have the right to do so. Because even the prime minister said “criminal screens”. Why doesn’t he name them?
Balla: You say 90% of televisions are against the government, which has dismantled all the propaganda built up over many years. These percentages are not from today. Even six months ago, when there was no protest, the opposition had 60% of television airtime. But there is no problem.
Lesi: These pieces of information that you did not get your hands into the protest, did you say them as former Minister of the Interior? Because regardless of what portals and some media say, that Ergys Agasi dismissed you, and in fact it would be better if Gysi had dismissed you, because there is information from the prison road that this Ergys Agasi file will be a real scandal for the majority. But you have escaped, because you sleep soundly. Did Gysi Agasi dismiss you?!
Balla: During my time as Minister of the Interior, your family suffered a misfortune. Your brother passed away, who was one of the state’s best employees for years. I have come to your family to offer condolences in Lezhë. And I want to say one thing: the State Police is an organization that, from the Minister of the Interior’s side, only asks for support, and from the government’s side asks for more investment. The good news about the budget is that there will be a salary increase, just as I wanted to tell the truth when I was Minister of the Interior. In the conditions we are in, we must understand that these days have been black days for public culture with the State Police. The State Police should not be shot at, Molotov cocktails should not be thrown, because that is the most serious act. And then when the State Police reacts, the behavior is intolerable.