“Fit as a fiddle,” Kuko on the protests: The SP continues its work at the helm, while the reasons why citizens are taking to the streets must be analyzed

Socialist Party MP Romina Kuko was invited to the show “Live From Tirana” with Ronaldo Sharka, where she focused mainly on the popular protest that has been taking place in the capital for several days.

During the conversation, the host asked how the Socialist Party feels after 24 days of protests. In response, Kuko said with a laugh: “Fit as a fiddle.”

Later, after Sharka told her that she might be criticized for that statement, the Socialist MP said that the condition of the Socialist Party does not matter because, according to her, it is at the helm, continuing its good work and managing crises, adding: “C’est la vie.”

Ronaldo Sharka then raised the question of whether, after all these years in government and on the 24th day of the protest, the Socialist Party has learned any lessons beyond the debate over who is funding the protests, what is being done wrong and what is not. He also asked whether the Socialists had paused to accept that the protesters might be right on certain points and whether they had conducted any analysis or self-criticism.

In her response, Kuko said that analyses had, in her view, been carried out from the very beginning of the protest, both individually and as a group. She stressed that everyone has their own questions about the reasons that drive people to rise up in protest, clarifying that she was referring to what she called the healthy part, to young people and to those who genuinely come out for idealism and for real demands, setting aside, in her view, the interference and contamination of the protest.

She added that the parliamentary group had also held a meeting on Saturday, where self-reflection and the reflections that need to be made were discussed at length. According to Kuko, the solution comes through dialogue, while she underlined that self-analysis has value, but if there is no confrontation with the other side and with its grievances, then this is not enough.

When Sharka intervened by saying that the grievances have already been expressed, Kuko replied that this is true, but added that there are some grievances that, in her view, need to be clarified. She argued that some of them go beyond what is actually happening and that this is a kind of generalization of dissatisfaction, even a kind of nihilism. According to her, there are issues that need to be resolved, some of them are in the process of being resolved, while some others are untrue or exaggerated claims that require clarification.

The host then stressed that it cannot be called untrue that healthcare still has work to do. Kuko acknowledged that healthcare has problems that require work, describing this as another area of governance.

She added that the situation changes when someone comes out and says that the environment is being destroyed, or when it is claimed that Albania or an island has been sold, because according to her these claims require clarification and a very exhaustive debate.