After 100 days of civic resistance, activist Edison Lika said on the “First Minute” program on News24 that the protest had dismantled the government’s propaganda and restored citizens’ trust.
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According to Lika, the most important result of this resistance has been the people’s unity and the revival of hope for an active democracy.
“We have regained trust in one another and in our diaspora, which is no longer merely an ATM or a substitute welfare state, but our brothers and sisters who will help us achieve democracy,” he said.
The activist said that through the protest, the regime’s mask had been removed in front of international organizations, foreign media and members of the European Parliament. He claimed that it had now become clear that Albania was governed by an autocracy, not a liberal democracy. He also said that the movement had restored hope among citizens who had previously viewed emigration as their only solution.
Speaking about people being taken to police stations and incidents of police violence over the past three months, Lika said that the repression had failed to stop the civic movement. With the start of the new parliamentary session, he warned of a direct confrontation with MPs.
“As long as those in power have not changed their strategy and continue to turn a deaf ear, we will be there to tell them that we have not changed. Tomorrow we will be at Parliament to greet with eggs all the MPs who have not represented us, but have represented organized crime, the oligarchy and their party leaders,” the activist stressed.
Lika said that one of the protest’s main achievements was its influence on shaping public discourse. According to him, every social problem or disaster, including the wave of fires that affected the country in recent days, has found its voice only in the protest square.
He added that the protest had taken on the role of a genuine citizens’ parliament, a function that official institutions, in his view, had abandoned long ago.
