The leader of the Democratic Party, Sali Berisha, has called on citizens, business owners and DP supporters to show solidarity with the student protests.
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He described the movement as a revolt that will save Albania and the Albanian people, pledging his party’s full support and the greatest protection it can offer.
Addressing concerns about property affected during the protest, Berisha said he categorically opposed such actions.
However, he accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of bearing the greatest responsibility for the destruction and seizure of Albanians’ property, as well as for the mismanagement of the country’s assets.
According to the Democratic Party leader, in recent days there have also been people who support the students but react strongly to the violation of certain property rights.
He urged those people, whom he referred to as friends, to join the protesters, calling Rama the greatest thief of all time of property they consider sacred.
Berisha insisted that his opposition to encroaching on property could not make him overlook what he called Rama’s destruction, seizure and plundering of Albanians’ property.
He described the prime minister as a narco-dictator and criticized those who, in his view, fail to call him one. He said the system is sustained by drugs, which he claimed have devastated the economy, and by the theft of billions and billions of euros, as well as public assets worth billions and billions. He called for the system to be brought down as soon as possible.
The DP leader appealed to parents, grandparents and the students’ peers to join them. He said the protesters’ voices came from the purest conscience of Albanian society and the nation, and that their struggle was the most powerful fight to save the country.
To explain the need for solidarity, Berisha referred to scenes he described as the most horrific he had ever seen.
According to him, students lying on the ground were being attacked by people he called narco-gangsters—Albanians, Serbs or people of other backgrounds—who stomped on their limbs with boots to break their bones and kicked them in the head. He accused the Ministry of Education of having become the site of the most appalling crime.
The Democratic Party leader also mentioned the ministry’s hall, where, according to his account, people who were still alive had been thrown onto the concrete, some conscious and others unconscious as a result of violence by those he called narco-gangsters. Asking what else people should wait for, he said every hour that passed was a major loss.
Berisha urged businesspeople to use the influence of their enterprises against the government and in support of the students. Specifically, he invited them to close their shop shutters and put up notices saying they were on strike, following the example of protesters who had stopped attending classes and who, he said, were directly confronting the vicious enemies of their very existence. He repeated his appeal for solidarity to every Albanian citizen and to all members and supporters of the Democratic Party.
Berisha stressed that the DP had stood firmly with the students from the very first minute, offering its full support and the maximum protection it could provide. He praised the students and high schoolers for what he called their historic decision to take to the streets and confront what he described as a heartless gang. After thanking the citizens and DP supporters who had backed them, he assured them that the party would continue to provide the movement with all possible support and protection.
