Minister Blendi Gonxhe Insults Protesters: They Are a Bunch of Fools Throwing Stones and Slabs at Parliament

Tourism and Culture Minister Blendi Gonxhe stated that if the protesters had a tax identification number, the €4 million bill for financing Kanye West’s concert would fall on those who attempted to undermine and sabotage the event.

He made the statement at today’s meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, where the normative act on financing the American rapper’s concert was discussed. He said that some of the protesters, whether intentionally or not, were causing considerable damage to the country and the event.

“We are facing a situation in which the concert became a windmill against which every Don Quixote and every protester from the section that, let us say, was denouncing and fighting the wrong target—in this case Kanye West and the concert—charged, sabotaging it, undermining it and placing it at the center of a list of targets of a protest that, in some respects, left much to be desired. I am referring to the violent, bullying element and the part that I believe was unaware of the damage it could cause to the country and the event, damage that could perhaps even be measured by the cost of the bill arising from this normative act.

I think that if that part of the protest had a tax identification number, the concert bill would belong to that section of the protest, whether it acted intentionally, out of ineptitude, ignorance or malice…” Gonxhe emphasized.

His statement prompted a reaction from Democratic Party MP Oerd Bylykbashi, who described it as an insult to the protesters.

Gonxhe went even further, describing the protesters as “a bunch of fools” throwing stones and slabs at Parliament.

“There is no question about our respect for the institution of protest, but when it comes to a bunch of fools throwing stones and slabs at Parliament, the people have said: give way to the fool. We consider that bunch to be at that level,” he said.