Adriatik Dosti challenges Rama: How does he explain honoring Balli and now insulting “ballists”?

Publicist Adriatik Dosti has launched sharp criticism against Prime Minister Edi Rama, confronting him with a profound contradiction regarding the history of Balli Kombëtar. He recalled the grand state ceremony of 2018, when the Albanian government reburied the remains of Mit’hat Frashëri, while Rama himself delivered lofty words about his national contribution. Yet today, according to Dosti, the same prime minister uses the epithet “ballist” as an insult against MP Agron Shehaj.

Dosti sees this as a hypocritical stance, where Rama’s current rhetoric revives the spirit of the communist war against nationalist forces. According to him, the prime minister wears two faces: one that publicly honors Balli figures for political gain, and another that despises them when needed for daily battles.

On November 14, 2018, Albania received with an official ceremony the remains of one of the nation’s most brilliant figures, Mit’hat Frashëri, founder of Balli Kombëtar. Dosti emphasizes that the expenses for this repatriation, in respect of Frashëri’s testament, were covered by businessman Agron Shehaj, although the credit was taken by the government and the prime minister at the time.

During the homage near the hills of the Artificial Lake, Rama delivered what Dosti considers the most dignified and national speech of his career. He called Frashëri a worthy servant of the nation, unjustly condemned by the occupiers of the time, and invited those present to bow their heads before his history.

But eight years later, Dosti condemns Rama’s completely opposite approach. He accuses the prime minister of reawakening the blood of the former “victors,” publicly attacking Shehaj and comparing him to a “ballist who enters the henhouse and steals the chickens,” in reference to the document taken from the parliamentary secretariat.

This mindset, Dosti underscores, is the same philosophy inherited from the Enver Hoxha regime, which incited hatred against Balli Kombëtar and other Albanians. He cites the call of the old communist commander and links it to Rama’s latest statement, in which he demanded the immediate arrest of the one he now calls a “ballist.”

Finally, Dosti ends with bitter irony: it is difficult to find another case in history, where those who themselves admitted they should bow before Frashëri’s work, today throw so much mud and venom on the Albanian Kingdom, King Zog, and the entire legacy of Balli. He concludes that you cannot expect anything else from such people, mentioning the popular Tirana wisdom about what the belly and soul bring forth.