Opposition leader calls for early elections, custodian government at Tirana rally
TIRANA, Dec. 8 – Albania’s main opposition Democratic Party held Tuesday what it says is the largest anti-government rally of the past two years, calling for early elections and a custodian government to address what it says are the failures of the Socialist-led government.
DP’s leader, Lulzim Basha, said the large attendance at the rally was “a referendum against the government,” which should resign as soon as possible.
Basha said the government of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama had ran out of time, accusing it of corruption, mismanagement of the economy and allowing people with criminal ties to take seats in parliament and be elected become mayors.
Incidents during and after protest
The protest was accompanied with some violent incidents, as activists threw eggs, paint, hard objects and fireworks toward the Prime Minister’s Office, in front of which the rally was being held.
A modern art installation, a recent addition to the building, was partially damaged. At least two people were arrested by police.
A former political dissident imprisoned during Albania’s communist era then urged protesters to a attack a monument under construction on the grounds of the Interior Ministry. The monument was later set on fire. It features a replica bunker, which was to serve as part of the museum dealing with the country’s communist past.
But some those who suffered under the regime say it glorifies communism instead, and they accuse the ruling Socialist Party of having ties to the former communist regime.
Rocks were also thrown at windows of nearby ministries. Two Democratic Party PMs could be seen putting themselves between the rock throwers and the ministries, telling the protesters to stop attacking the buildings.
The center-right opposition had chosen Dec. 8 for the rally, as a national holiday, Youth Day, set to commemorate student protests in 1990 that started the toppling of the then-communist regime in Albania, forcing it to accept political pluralism.
The Democrats have suffered two back-to-back electoral defeats and are trying to change their fortunes as Albanians grow uneasy with the cost of the Socialist-led government’s reforms and the quality of the country’s governance in general.
The Socialist government has undertaken very painful reforms that have hit the poorest Albanians hardest, increasing anger among many Albanians, analysts say.
Basha has also accused Rama and some key ministers in his cabinet of corruption and mismanaging reforms.
Rama condemns violence
Prime Minister Rama expressed anger at what he called “miserable vandalism” on the day that Albania remembers the student movement that helped bring down communism 25 years ago. It was the same movement that led to the creation of the Democratic Party.
“The Democratic Party is but a shadow of its former self, trying to get back the lost trust of Albanian through stones and petrol bottles thrown on public investment,” Rama wrote on Facebook. “The European will of the Albanians is not embodied by those who destroy two urban art installations — with the same primitive savagery that in fact, and unfortunately, they would have been destroyed by the communist regime too.”
