Several days ago Prime Minister Edi Rama called for dialogue with students, but the latter have refused. However, the head of government has found a way to hold a “debate” about students’ concerns. The head of government shared a video of a student who spoke about the situation and raises several questions for the government, and Rama responds from his car. As the Prime Minister’s Office indicates, Rama is traveling to Budva, Montenegro, where he will take part in the Summit of Leaders of the Berlin Process, taking place on 21-22 October 2026. The summit will bring together leaders of the Western Balkans and European partners, focusing on strengthening regional cooperation, economic integration and advancing the European perspective of the countries of the region.
Video message from Prime Minister Edi Rama
– Mr. Prime Minister, who do you want to dialogue with?
Rama: I want dialogue with anyone who believes I am bad, but violence is an enemy of everyone’s freedom.
– With the young people whom the police shot with rubber bullets and suffocated with tear gas, or with the students whose promises you have been feeding since 2018?
Rama: The police were attacked with stones and fire and with all kinds of shrapnel and screws, with primitive slingshots, and reacted with tear gas and water, and in some cases also with batons and rubber bullets, the means of any police force in any democratic country. And when the injured police officers are more than double the injured protesters, unlike all the countries where something similar has happened and is happening these days, any claim of police violence against students is diabolical. I am ready to do the accounting of the 2018 promise, but face to face and with facts, not rhetoric.
– Did you perhaps just remember to talk with the flamingos?
Rama: I just remembered to talk about the flamingos? No! I have written and published a whole reflection after following, listening to, and analyzing them, and I speak about those from June, that they were flamingos for me. In fact today, among other results of that reflection, there is also a website that emerged as part of it: “flamingomirror.al”, ”the mirror of the flamingo”.
– Have you just remembered dialogue?
Rama: Read the date of this short insert. For the young people who truly believe they are making a revolution, I have only sympathy and am always ready to talk, if they want to talk, but I remain fully understanding if they do not want to. (12 June 2026) There are some like that, while for four months I have listened to them more than anyone. I, up there in my office, they down below the window. “Prison or the noose” was how my work began in the morning with some people standing there at the corner of the boulevard shouting, and it ended in the evening with “prison” and “down with communism”, with full of curses, oaths and threats.
– And again, you do not set aside your arrogance? Again you try to insult our intelligence as if we do not know how to argue?
Rama: Arrogancë është të thuash “populli nuk është ai që të votoi ty, po jemi ne poshtë dritares tënde dhe do marrim peng Tiranën po nuk e braktise detyrën, pavarësisht se ke kontratë me shumicën e popullit shqiptar”. Aq më tepër që unë nuk kam dëgjuar argumenta po kam dëgjuar sharje, kam dëgjuar ulërima, kërcënime për këdo që nuk mendon si ju, cilëtdo qofshin, online apo offline dhe manipulime të pafundme me ndihmën e duarve të atyre që nuk e duan Shqipërinë të ngjitet më lart.
– Po jua jap unë tre argumente: Belinda Balluku, Arben Ahmetaj, Erion Veliaj.
Rama: Më fal, ju jeni prokurorë, jeni gjykatës apo jeni studentë? Dhe nëse jeni studentë, duhet të bëni kujdes një çikë nga ai profesori që ju ka mësuar të ngrini akuza kolektive duke rreshtuar emra, sepse ky vend ka vuajtur shumë nga idhujt ‘’vrastarë’’ të këtij profesori që ju mëson së mbrapshti.
– A doni t’ju jap 420 mijë argumente të tjerë, aq sa shqiptarë janë larguar që nga viti 2011?
Me kënaqësi, po, dua të m’i japësh 420.000 argumente, por sy më sy ama dhe me durimin për të dëgjuar dhe jo vetëm me nxitimin për të folur e për të propaganduar.
– A doni të dini pse ne nuk kemi besim tek dialogu juaj? Sepse na e treguat besën në 2018 kur iu premtuat studentëve 5%, që edhe sot e keni pa paguar faturën.
Kështu thoni ju, por lexojeni Paktin për Universitetin që ishte dokumenti që e kurorëzoi atë protestë studentore dhe mos ngatërroni kërkesat e shumta që u hodhën lart e poshtë asokohe me zotimet e qarta dhe të shkruara që mori qeveria.
– Sepse kur SPAK-u kërkoi arrestimin e Belinda Ballukut ju e mbrojtët atë.
Jo, ndryshe nga çfarë thonë ata që nuk dinë çfarë thonë, unë nuk mbroj askënd nga drejtësia, përkundrazi. Por në atë rast ne mbrojtëm drejtësinë nga njëanshmëria dhe koha na dha të drejtë, sepse refuzimi ynë për të pranuar, duke ngritur kartonat e Parlamentit, një tjetër arrest pa gjyq në një vend që është bërë turpi i Europës, me 63% të paraburgosur në totalin e të burgosurve, nuk e pengoi aspak SPAK-un që t’i thellonte hetimet dhe t’i shteronte duke zgjeruar akuzat.
– Prandaj nuk kemi besim tek ju.
Prandaj në fakt ju duhet të keni besim te unë.
– Ne nuk i urrejmë policët.
E besoj që ju nuk i urreni policët sepse ju i hidhni gurët dhe molotovët në emër të një urrejtjeje më të lartë, parimore, gati-gati idealiste sipas jush; urrejtja e Antifa-s, urrejtja e “black bloc”-ëve, urrejtja e të gjithë atyre që janë lëshuar nëpër Europë si një lukuni që nuk di fare se ku do dalë po di ama që duhet të shkatërrojë dhe në fakt dhuna më e egër dhe pasojat më çnjerëzore në kurrizin e popujve dhe vendeve, kanë ardhur pikërisht nga ai lloj urrejtje.
– Por si ti besojmë kur në fakt ish ministri i Brendshëm juaji Saimir Tahiri u dënua dhe gjykata shkroi se ai ndihmoi një bandë të futej brenda në polici.
Sa keq më vjen! Si mundet një i ri të zvarrisë nëpër gojë një njeri të dënuar shumë vite më parë, që sot është në jetën e vet pasi e ka kryer edhe dënimin. Nuk e di. Po të thashë kujdes, kujdes nga ai profesori që ia u mëson gjërat për sprapsi.
– When will you believe us, when the boot is pressed so easily against protesters, young people, minors?
My friend, but when the boot was pulled back, which you imitate without your eyes trembling, right where you were sitting, from where protesters remained dead and were dragged wounded from the boulevard, still not a single paving stone was torn up, no Molotov cocktails were thrown at police, and the businesses of ordinary people in this country were not destroyed. Meanwhile, minors could not even approach those protests, because whoever protested did not use minors and did not pay black hoods to maim and burn police officers and take an entire nation hostage by reviving the ghost of a past that no longer returns.
– So this is our experience.
This is in fact the experience of your Instagrams and TikToks, amplified by the corrupted screens of media owners, where the police are the aggressors and the students are the victims. Meanwhile, the experience of doctors and nurses in Tirana’s hospitals is that injured police officers are two and a half times more numerous than protesters and passersby combined. And genuine students among the injured are far, far fewer.
– This is the distrust you have cultivated by choosing the wrong people for the posts you appointed, you prime minister.
You are absolutely entitled to be distrustful, while my choices are my right. Among dozens upon dozens, I don’t know how many, 60 or more ministers have been appointed in 13 years; there are surely some wrong choices, and I cannot possibly deny this.
– Bear constitutional responsibility for the ministers you select.
And?
– Criminal responsibility is personal. Yes, agreed! But political responsibility cannot hide behind it.
Absolutely not. My political responsibility is to guarantee that neither I nor the government defends anyone from our ranks who is placed under accusation by the justice system. And when you show me a prime minister or a president, in a democratic country, who bears any other kind of personal responsibility than what I am telling you, then we will gladly return to this argument.
– But when will you bear responsibility?
I will tell you that when you come to dialogue. Do not be afraid of dialogue. Distance yourself from stones and from fire. Leave the path of violence, my friend.