Lea Ypi supports students and condemns violence: Albania needs social democracy, not merely a change of power

Albanian writer Lea Ypi has reacted to the students’ protest in Tirana, which has entered its sixth day, expressing her solidarity with the young people calling for change.

She condemned the use of violence by the police, arguing that a state governed by the rule of law should not maintain order with batons. Ypi said the students have her support and compassion, while urging them to transform their anger into a genuine political and social alternative.

According to her, removing one politician and replacing him with another does not constitute a national project, but merely a party objective. Ypi stressed that Albania needs deeper change that would replace oligarchy with social democracy, while corruption, in her view, should be seen as a consequence of the economic and political system that produces it.

Ypi added that, if she were leading the country, she would have resigned as early as June. In conclusion, she called on students and left-wing activists to continue with peaceful protests only, build their own alternative and not allow themselves to be manipulated or divided by actors who do not share the same project.

Lea Ypi explained that she had made her views on the protests public four months ago and that her position had not changed. She said she was repeating that position because of the many questions she had received from friends, journalists and readers.

The writer said she had not felt represented either by the governing left or by the opposition right, which she accused of encouraging crowds to light fires and throw firecrackers on the boulevard. In her view, violence without a strategy and without a vision for the future ends in unnecessary fratricide.

Nevertheless, Ypi stressed that violence in defense of a just principle cannot be considered wrong in every situation. She added that political violence can be justified only when it is supported by a convincing project for social change and when it constitutes the only way to achieve it.

Referring to the political situation, she described it as sad that, 35 years after the fall of communism, change in Albania is still presented mainly as replacing one leader with another. For Ypi, changing individuals in power or in opposition is not a national project, while responsibility should be borne by the respective parties.

She believes that replacing oligarchy with social democracy would constitute a genuine political project. Its realization, she said, remains difficult in Albania and around the world because of geopolitical factors, the influence of culture and religion, internal conflicts, the fragility of democracy and the aggressiveness of capitalism.

Ypi argues that oligarchs can buy power, politicians and officials, both those currently in office and those who may come later. She also underlined the need to work with the older generation to understand the traumas of the past and with young people to turn anger into solutions.

According to her, genuine democratic standards have never been established in Albania to hold leaders accountable. One reason, she said, is that the order described as democratic emerged from the Party of Labour of Albania, from which came the leaders of the two parties that have governed the country ever since.

Another reason, Ypi continued, is that capitalism does not necessarily need democracy in order to develop, since the private market needs only customers. In this context, she sees corruption not as the cause of the political order’s failure, but as a consequence of submission to the economic order. According to her, the capitalist system either buys the honest person or renders them ineffective when it cannot buy them.

Ypi unequivocally condemned police violence, reiterating that a state where the rule of law prevails should not maintain order with batons. She expressed full support for the protesting students, but also for police officers who, in her view, risk their lives to earn a living.

Asked whether she would resign if she were currently leading Albania, Ypi said she certainly would have done so in June. She added that she might also have taken this step after the arrest of the first lawmaker or minister, or after winning another term, even if only to set a different standard of accountability.

The writer described discussions of these issues as topics that bring nothing new to Tirana’s political debate. She said they amounted to station and portal gossip, which, in her view, benefits from reducing the social alternative to questions of personal biographies.

Finally, Ypi called on students, readers, friends and activists who share her left-wing beliefs to return exclusively to peaceful protests. She urged them to use the spaces they have created to build the alternative that Albania and Europe need, and to increase their political influence despite the difficulties.

She called for inappropriate cooperation, manipulation and division by people who have no connection to this project to be avoided. According to Ypi, building the genuine Albanian left requires perseverance, extensive intellectual and political work and, above all, patience.