Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha said today that the opposition supports the first five demands raised by the protesters and that they will be included in its political commitment, both at home and abroad.
Asked about the demands presented by the protesters, including the establishment of a non-political transitional government for a 12-month period in the event of the prime minister’s resignation, Berisha said that the Democratic Party stands by them.
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He stressed that these demands will be treated with the utmost seriousness in the opposition’s political activity at both the national and international level, adding that the Democratic Party has defended the protesters’ cause even in its contacts and meetings abroad.
Berisha also called on Parliament to set aside every other issue and focus on reviewing the protesters’ demands, which he described as just.
During his statement, he accused Prime Minister Edi Rama of restoring forms of surveillance that, according to him, resemble the darkest period of the communist dictatorship.
Berisha said that, for generations who did not live through that time, during the dictatorship outdoor areas, the sides of the boulevard, trees, bridges and other spaces were filled with wiretapping devices that continuously recorded every conversation of citizens on sidewalks, benches or in parks.
According to him, the madness of the dictatorship knew no bounds, while today, he said, Edi Rama has installed an even deeper and more all-encompassing surveillance system than the one from that era.
He stated that, after the installation of full internet recording and interception equipment in Albania during the blocking of TikTok, which according to him continues to control online communications in the country, the prime minister has placed the project called Smart City at the disposal of the State Police.
Berisha described Smart City as a project based on robotic cameras with very high resolution and major capacities, which in Europe is administered entirely by municipalities and used only for services to citizens.
He said that one such camera is monitoring day and night the protest and peaceful uprising of Albanian citizens and youth, while adding that the same cameras have been installed on all four sides of Tirana and that they are not administered by the municipality, but by the police state and the State Police.
Berisha then referred to a statement by the general director of the narcopolice, whom he identified as Skënder Troplini or Çela, quoting the phrase: “The police have entered the era of intelligent monitoring, technology determines the culprit.”
According to him, this clearly shows the nature of the police state, since cameras that should be administered by municipalities in the best interest of citizens are now managed by the narcopolice for their strict surveillance.
Berisha said that the classic Smart City model manages traffic, public transport, smart lighting, parking, the environment and municipal services, while being administered by municipalities and urban institutions, far from the police. According to him, the focus of this model is convenience and the best possible service for citizens.
He then spoke about what he called the project of the Albanian narco-state, saying that it extends to 20 cities and border crossing points, is administered by the state’s narcopolice, which according to him means by the drug cartels, and includes an AI platform, an advanced control center, cameras, radars, ANPR and an optical fiber network.
He stressed that this system aims to monitor and control the territory, with none of the municipal functions of Smart City, but only police functions such as operational maintenance, monitoring, security, control and centralized supervision.
According to Berisha, this model has the police as its main operator, the police as its command center as well, and also uses AI surveillance, real-time analysis, license plate reading, movement tracking and the potential for biometric data, especially facial data, as well as data storage and analysis.
He said that this amounts to the destruction of privacy and civil liberties and defined it as a centralized police-command-center model, therefore a police state and a narco-state, calling “Smart City”-“Safe Nation” an Orwellian concept.
He went on to list the differences that, according to him, exist between a smart city and a safe nation: from improving quality of life and public services to controlling the population and preventing alleged threats; from traffic, transport, energy, parking and pollution services to security, order, identification and behavior monitoring; from anonymous aggregated data for analysis and planning to identifiable personal data in real time in the police state.
He continued by saying that the difference also lies in the shift from being limited only to services to a broad and continuous reach across many digital levels, from open analytical platforms to AI cameras, facial recognition, data and integration into databases, from data protection laws to broad, often vague and frightening laws, as well as from data and algorithms that are often public to a total lack of transparency.
According to Berisha, the difference is also from the benefit of better services for citizens to their surveillance and profiling in the police state, from use in the function of public services, urban planning and public policy to control, investigation, prosecution, behavior prediction and citizen profiling, and from low risk to privacy if oversight and auditing exist to high risk to privacy, political abuse and discrimination.
He said these are the essential differences between a safe nation and a smart city.
Berisha declared that this is another step by Edi Rama, who, according to him, terrified by Albanian citizens, is trying to dominate them by placing them under full control from morning until evening in their every movement.
According to him, this goes beyond all authoritarian regimes and is in blatant contradiction with Albania’s Constitution and the EU directive, constituting a serious violation of national and international law, which he said he condemns in the strongest terms.
Berisha went on to salute the tens of thousands of citizens who, according to him, despite extraordinary conditions and unprecedented heat, once again filled the streets and boulevards of Tirana yesterday until the early hours of the morning, demanding the immediate departure of the narco-dictator.
He called on Albanian citizens, young and old, to join this protest at any time and on every occasion, calling it a magnificent protest that sows hope in every Albanian heart.
He also addressed an appeal to the diaspora, inviting it to remain, as it has until now, engaged in this great mission to save Albania from a regime that, according to him, in many respects has harmed the Albanian nation in its very existence more than any regime before it.
Berisha also strongly condemned what he said were the insults Edi Rama directs at Albanians in the largest international media outlets. He declared that neither Gaddafi, nor Saddam, nor Maduro allowed themselves the language that, according to him, Rama used toward Albanians in the Financial Times.
According to him, this demonstrates the prime minister’s boundless hatred toward Albanian citizens and that the language he used was shocking to the journalist and the audience present.
Berisha said that Edi Rama does not behave like a padrino, but much worse than the padrino of Albania, adding that he considers the country a sultanate of bygone times, in which he himself plays the role of the sultan, the judge, the police officer and every other function.
He insisted that Edi Rama must leave a minute sooner and added that even if he goes behind the sun, he will leave as an unparalleled thief of his nation, as the man who built in Albania the first and only narco-state in Europe.
Berisha further said that Rama will leave as the traitor of a nation against which, according to him, he did everything and carried out a calculated genocide to drive Albanians out of Albania, as a fierce enemy of Albanians in Albania, in Kosovo and everywhere in the world.
In the questions from journalists, Anisa Kadesha of RTSH asked Berisha how he assessed the five demands presented by the protesters, which included the demand to create a non-political transitional government for a 12-month term if the prime minister resigns.
In response, Berisha repeated that the first five demands are fully supported by the Democratic Party and that this support constitutes one of the most fundamental motives of its total commitment, not with symbols and slogans, but as Democratic Party membership and supporters, on the basis of civic fiber.
He added that the demands presented yesterday give protesters guarantees that they will be treated with the greatest seriousness both in direct national activity and at the international level.
Berisha also stressed that in all international connections and activities, the Democratic Party has defended the protesters’ just cause.
In the same response, he underlined that the opposition is ready to treat these demands with the utmost seriousness and insisted that Parliament suspend every other activity in order to address the just demands of the protesters, the youth protest and Albanian citizens.
Then SYRI TV journalist Marsi Korreshi asked Berisha about his repeated allegations that Edi Rama is preparing asylum for former deputy prime minister under investigation Belinda Balluku and whether he had more information on this.
Berisha replied that, according to him, she has been dealing with Lubi Balluku’s asylum and that this is the truth.
He added that the serious case files reviewed during this period show that Lubi Balluku and Edi Rama are co-chairs not of a structured criminal group, but of a structured criminal organization in the Albanian government.
Asked whether Edi Rama is also thinking about his own departure, Berisha said that without any doubt he is thinking about it.
Finally, he declared that he is following this issue and that the opposition calls on the countries with which Albania has relations to categorically reject any request for political asylum from any Albanian government official or politician, including Prime Minister Edi Rama and his ministers.
