FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
For more than a month, thousands of Albanians have been protesting every evening, while Prime Minister Edi Rama's entire system has been called into question...
Could Edi Rama be one of the next collateral victims of Trumpism? By offering Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner the island of Sazani and several thousand hectares of wild coastline, the socialist prime minister, in power since 2013, probably thought he would strengthen his status as the country's strongman and win the sympathy of the American President.
But the images of angry Albanians being raped by private security agents during the construction site's construction, under the eyes of a passive police force, sparked one of the largest protest movements since the fall of the dictatorship in 1991. These images also drew international media attention to Edi Rama's way of governing.
For more than a month, every evening crowds of Albanians have marched past his windows chanting: "Albania is not for sale," and demanding his resignation. These joyful and completely peaceful rallies were quickly dubbed the "Pink Flamingo Revolution."
The artist who was first appointed Minister of Culture and then the unconventional mayor of Tirana, Edi Rama, has long been presented as the only man capable of bringing Albania into the 21st century. But today, in the protests, he appears disguised as a gangster, ready to sell the country's most precious natural and cultural assets.
For the Albanian Generation Z, which is heard strongly on the streets of the capital, the former professional basketball player embodies a political system eroded by clientelism and mafia interests. A system that pushes young people to leave the country: around 160,000 people have left Albania between 2021 and 2026, while the country today has only 2.3 million inhabitants, compared to just over 3 million according to the 2001 census.
"The artist who becomes the prime minister"
Faced with the scale of the protest, the strongman of Tirana denounces a "hybrid war" driven by foreign interests, sometimes mentioning Greece, sometimes Iran, sometimes Kosovo (although Kosovo is 92% inhabited by Albanians). He also questions the integrity of foreign journalists and attacks several figures of the protest movement on social networks.
In an interview with the Financial Times on June 23, he told protesters to "go to hell," before adding: "It's not my job to prove I'm not a godfather; it's their job to prove I am."
This polyglot, who cultivates his eccentricity during international summits, has shown more finesse in diplomatic communication. In recent years, from Emmanuel Macron to Giorgia Meloni to Ursula von der Leyen, everyone has hailed "dear Edi", who has aligned Albania with the geopolitical positions of the European Union, while the country's membership has been mentioned several times as possible by 2030.
Re-elected last year for a fourth term, he now sees his power weakened. As skyscrapers and luxury hotels proliferate in a country where the minimum wage barely exceeds 500 euros, the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, created in 2019 under pressure from Brussels and Washington, has stepped up investigations into these real estate operations, suspected of being linked to money laundering from cocaine trafficking.
Several figures from the Socialist Party have been placed under investigation. It is precisely these connections that protesters denounce with the slogans "Government of Crime", accusations that Edi Rama continues to deny.
For more than a decade, the "artist who becomes prime minister" has promoted the image of a progressive and modern Albania, open to investors and on the path to the European Union. Today, Edi Rama's political narrative is facing the "Pink Flamingo Revolution" and a new generation demanding more justice and democratization. /Adapted from Pamphlet by Le Soir/
Paradoksi është se Soroisti Rama këtë herë po e pëson si Trampist