Eggs Frighten the Majority / Conversations Revealed, Socialist MPs Sought Police Intervention Against Protesters

Violent police intervention against protesters was requested by Socialist Party MPs. Kapitali has published the conversations of Socialist lawmakers, which led to the police intervention and the detention of six protesters, a move that also caused surprise, since for 30 consecutive days the government had kept the police away from confrontation with the protesters.

It was initially Taulant Balla who instructed MPs on how to avoid the protesters’ eggs. Like a platoon commander from the days of Enver Hoxha’s military drills, Mr. Balla directed the MPs to carry out evasive maneuvers to escape the eggs.

“Attention. On the Toptani side there are protesters with eggs. Come from the Mosque side,” the head of the parliamentary group wrote to the Socialist MPs.

But although at the entrance Rama’s MPs managed to avoid the protesters, the situation changed around midday, when on the way out the vehicles of some MPs were hit with eggs by the protesters. The first to complain about the police was Erjon Braçe, whose car was struck several times with eggs by protesters.

“The fact that the police are allowing the degradation of MPs in front of cameras is unacceptable. And there are only 100 of them in total. And in practical terms it is a physical attack,” Braçe wrote.

Rama’s communications director, Jonida Shehu, asked MPs to avoid the protesters.

Blendi Gonxhja also joined the discussion, but Mr. Gonxhja seems to have regretted what he wrote and deleted it immediately. In general, Mr. Gonxhja writes strange things unrelated to the topic or the situation, such as complaints that tickets for Kanye West’s concert are not being sold. It is not known whether this time too he raised the issue of concert tickets, because the message was deleted quickly.

But the discussion continued with Mr. Braçe, who described the attacks on MPs as deliberate hunting.

“Look, I think this is deliberate and this is a clear hunt against every MP, regardless of whether it is a man or a woman. If the state police have this objective, very well; good for everyone, but we don’t owe this to anyone,” Braçe continued in his complaint.

The Socialist MP from Lezhë, Admir Kadeli, also felt frightened.

“At the very least, why don’t you let the MPs’ cars inside, but leave them to come out on foot? Is Parliament’s security endangered by the MPs’ cars?!” Kadeli asked in the form of a complaint to the parliamentary administration, which does not allow MPs’ cars inside Parliament’s perimeter.

Exactly 20 minutes after these discussions, police intervened violently, escorting away six protesters and holding them for several hours at police stations in Tirana.

But beyond revealing why the government set the police against the protesters, the conversations between Socialist MPs show something even bigger: the majority is now frightened of the protesters and sees conspiracies everywhere./Kapitali