A truly comical scene in this video shows Democratic Party MP Klevis Balliu being picked up by a group of protesters and thrown into the Lana River.
To escape the violence, Balliu Junior made his way on foot across the Lana and climbed out on the other side. In the video, protesters can be heard shouting, “Where are you going, man?” They thought he was going to try to get out again on the side where they had thrown him.
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As is well known, two days earlier, Balliu had urged protesters to set fire to the Ministry of Education. This angered many of the other protesters, who felt they had been used by him. Today’s attack on him appears to stem from internal rivalry within the protest—and perhaps even within the Democratic Party.
In the video, he can be seen struggling to get out of the water.
Balliu claims the incident was organized by police structures, naming Skënder Hitaj and Ilir Proda, as well as Ergys Agasi. He also accuses people who, he says, present themselves as opposition figures but act in the interests of the governing majority.
“In response to the latest media uproar in government outlets, I must clarify the following: First of all, today at around 17:00, from the Democratic Party headquarters, I denounced the horrific and criminal violence inflicted by the State Police on students. This was undoubtedly a necessary response to the shameful statements by Dhimitraq Ziu, who sought to cover up the criminal acts committed against students by Edi Rama’s criminal police.
“Second, it is true that we had an incident carefully organized by the police operational unit of Dhimitraq Ziu, Skënder Hitaj, Ilir Proda, Ergys Agasi, and all the other thugs who exploit the parties of the blind, which act like opposition groups but are entirely at the service of the governing majority and Edi Rama from morning until night. There is no doubt that they, like everyone else, will get the response they deserve, as has often happened to every thug who has assaulted or dared to confront this country’s free citizens. It is not true that I was hit. It is true that we had a confrontation and that citizens were attacked at that moment. But there is no question that no scheme by the police operational unit, no scheme by Edi Rama, and no scheme by the blind, who will be held accountable, can stop me, the Democratic Party, or any Democrat from supporting with all our strength the students confronting Edi Rama’s narco-regime,” he said.
