Rama at Paris Peace Forum: A small group turned protests violent, opposition hid behind radicalized young people

Prime Minister Edi Rama took part in a discussion at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris as part of the Peace Forum. The conversation focused on the enlargement of the European Union and the future of the younger generation.

Asked about demonstrations by young people in Albania, Rama was invited to explain what they have in common with protests in Italy and France, and what sets them apart. The question also touched on concerns about accelerating migration, particularly for work, in Albania and other candidate countries.

Rama thanked the organizers for the invitation and said it was a pleasure to return to the Peace Forum each year. He said the protests in Albania had their own characteristics and that it was important to distinguish between their different stages. In June, he said, many people from different walks of life took part, concerned about the project linked to Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.

The prime minister described that project as a spark that ignited anger in the city. Later, he said, a small group remained at the protest and escalated the situation into violence, a departure from the gathering’s initial character.

Rama also linked the protest’s development to the clash between reality and social media, where young people, as he put it, encounter both information and disinformation. He said every protest called for reflection on its causes, and that the background to this one was varied, like a pot with many things simmering in it.

According to Rama, opposition parties large and small had hidden behind children radicalized by the illusions of ANTIFA, although, he said, this was now less well hidden. He noted that the situation in France was also complex, though the context was different.

Asked whether young people still believed in European Union membership or were becoming discouraged by a process that takes several years, Rama said the history of Albanians was distinctive. He recalled that Albania had not been part of the former Yugoslavia, that it broke with the Eastern bloc in the 1960s and later established a special relationship with China.

After emerging from that period, which he called “hell,” Albanians became “Western Taliban,” fanatics for good reasons, he said. Rama said Albanians had the highest pro-European rate and that, for them, the European Union was what it had been for their fathers.

He stressed that, despite internal disputes, political beliefs or protests, Albanians agreed that Europe was their common destination. According to Rama, no one else held sway over them apart from the European project.