Students demand his resignation, Rama lashes out at young protesters: Urban thugs and online stalkers

Prime Minister Edi Rama has responded to the student protests, questioning whether what he describes as violence and aggression can be accepted as normal in society.

As young people call for his resignation, Rama has chosen to attack them, calling them a group of thugs and online stalkers.

He said he did not want to revisit the makeup of this crowd, which he described as a “mishmash of categories,” while again repeating claims about foreign interference and even criminal financing.

“I have asked myself these past few days: Is it possible to accept as normal the aggression of a crowd that, in the name of students and young people, seeks to impose itself on us all—not only by smashing the ministry’s windows, but by violating every norm of coexistence among people living in the same city?

When I say everyone, I do not mean myself and the government. I mean all those who are not part of this aggression and who feel fear and insecurity because of this crowd of urban thugs and online stalkers. I also mean those who do not want me as prime minister but want to move around freely and go to work.

Can a crowd impose itself on us with shouting and insults, blocking traffic without regard for anyone’s freedom, and then erupt in a frenzy of violence with stones and fire?

Who are these people? I do not want to revisit the makeup of this crowd, a mishmash of categories made up of individuals from political parties that have nothing to do with one another. Nor do I want to repeat the claims about foreign hands, dirty money or organized crime,” Rama said.