Guests

Student-led anti-corruption and cost-of-living protests in Albania are calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, among other demands. Hundreds of injuries and arrests have been reported amid a violent police crackdown, along with widespread damage to public and private property. The student demands are an outgrowth of the “Flamingo Revolution,” which erupted earlier this year in opposition to a luxury resort being developed on the ecologically sensitive Sazan Island. The planned resort is backed by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, President Trump’s son-in-law and daughter, and has been fast-tracked by the Rama government.

“Students find no future in Albania,” says Bora Mema, a founding member of the left-wing political party Lëvizja Bashkë, about the motivations behind the burgeoning pro-democracy movement. “Many of us have to migrate because the only development model that the government proposes is to clean the toilets of the rich and the mafia in luxurious resorts, like the one that Trump and Kushner and the national oligarchs and mafia in Albania are constructing.”

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: In Albania, student-led anti-government protests have rocked the capital Tirana for more than a week, as thousands have taken to the streets to call for the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama. Last week, the Albanian Student Union called for strikes and demonstrations at the Ministry of Education to protest high tuition costs, poor university conditions, a lack of jobs, and corruption. At least half a million young Albanians have left the country over the last decade in search of better economic opportunities.

Initial protests have escalated into ongoing clashes with police, leading to hundreds of injuries and arrests, widespread damage to government buildings, street lights and private property. Riot police have deployed tear gas, water cannons, sound grenades and rubber bullets against the protesters. These are some of those protesters in their own words.

LULJETA KOLA: [translated] What does Albania want? It wants a revolution, a change, a complete overthrow of the system, because it can’t go on like this, because these people have become billionaires, superbillionaires, and there are very poor people here.

ULIKS SKENDERAJ: The economy, like education, healthcare, everything, has gone downhill since many years. Yeah, basically. But all of the — all of the politicians from both parties, the main parties, should be gone, basically. This is what the new generation wants.

NDERIME VLADI: For us to stop the protests, first of all, Edi Rama should resign, immediately. Like, at the second that he resigns, his whole Cabinet should resign. … They deserve prison for every corruption that they have done. They have done so many. I mean, I cannot begin to, like, count with my fingers what they have done with this country. The corruption is on levels unseen, unseen in any other state of the world.

ANJALI KAMAT: Albania’s protests first began in May, when environmentalists rallied against a luxury resort development on the ecologically sensitive Sazan Island. The project is backed by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and has been fast-tracked by the Albanian government. Protests against the development grew into what is known as the Flamingo movement, which has rallied against government corruption for months and has now been joined by students in this latest wave of unrest.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Edi Rama set up chairs outside Parliament in a symbolic gesture for dialogue. Protesters calling for his resignation later smashed the chairs. Rama is leader of the Socialist Party and has a majority in Parliament. He’s been in power for 13 years and has so far refused to resign. The next elections are scheduled for 2029. During a live stream on Sunday, Rama said protests could hurt Albania’s bid to join the European Union by 2030, and claimed protesters were linked to antifa.

PRIME MINISTER EDI RAMA: [translated] They are young men and women who have ideologized and radicalized under pressure or inspiration of the dark and new force that has emerged in Europe and the United States, which the president of the United States has designated a terrorist organization: antifa.

AMY GOODMAN: For more, we’re joined by Bora Mema, longtime labor organizer, researcher and activist. She’s also a founding member of the left-wing political party Lëvizja Bashkë, which means “movement together.” We spoke to her from Albania in July. Today, she’s joining us from London.

Bora, thanks so much for joining us again. If you can describe what is happening in the streets today in Tirana and around Albania, the dramatic scenes that are unfolding in the streets, and also how it all began, this development on Sazan Island, backed by President Trump’s son-in-law and his daughter, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump?

BORA MEMA: Thank you, Amy, for having me again in Democracy Now! It’s a very — it’s an honor for me and also for everyone who has been protesting for months to be in this program again and to represent and to speak up about what’s happening in Albania.

The last week has been quite dramatic due to the fact that the violence and the brutalism that the police have been showing to the protesters has never been seen in the country before, not even in 1991, when the Communist Party of Albania was still in power and it was a one-state party and it was a dictatorial regime. So, what we have been seeing so far is something unseen in the streets of Albania.

This is — this is not a separate protest. It’s not just a student protest. This is part of the ongoing more than 143 days of the Flamingo Revolution on the streets. But it has a huge turn, because after more than 135 days of peaceful protests — although there were many arrests and brutality shown by the police in specific protests close to the Parliament as they happen each week, all the other days have been quite peaceful protests.

What we’ve seen since last week, since last Tuesday, is that, since, the students decided to boycott the university. So, the academic year starts in Albania in the beginning of October, and students decided that there is no point to go to university for as long as there is this huge protest happening for so many months. There is massive corruption since the start of the protests with opposing the Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump hijacking the Sazan Island and the natural protected areas of Zvërnec in southwest of Albanian coastline. Students decided to boycott the classes. Professors are supporting students.

And it’s this outrage, because so many other corruption scandals have been identified during summer, so many other ministers or high functionaries, like the head of the Albanian secret service, like the Albanian CIA. She’s under house arrest because she was found out to be having an affair and also to leak state secret data to the underground prime minister of Albania, Ergys Agasi, which is the guy who does all the dirty work for Edi Rama.

So, all this outrage and the fact that students find no future in Albania. You must have seen — you also mentioned it before, that hundred thousands of people have left the country in one decade. Most of them are young people, people who see no future, people who are forced to be migrants, just like myself. We don’t want to be migrants. We want to live in our country, but we are forced to leave the country because there are no jobs. There is no — there is no future for us. It’s impossible for Albanians to even pay the rent or to have the prices higher than in so many supermarkets, even compared to Germany. The prices in supermarkets are higher than in Germany. But when it comes to the wages, they are the lowest in Europe, or the pensions. Like, many of us have to migrate because we need to support our retired parents. Many of us have to migrate because the only development model that the government proposes is to clean the toilets of the rich and the mafia in luxurious resorts, like the one that Trump and Kushner and the national oligarchs and mafia in Albania are constructing.

So, it started as environmental and against the land grab and protest, and it has developed into huge anti-corruption protests, that even if you compare it to the other protests happening around Europe, mostly from students and the youth, it has more an anti-systematic protest. As you heard, people demand a revolution. They want democracy. They want democracy now. Albania is living in an authoritarian regime.

Unfortunately, as you mentioned, the police violence has been extreme. There are more than 500 people being arrested, and due to the fact that the police stations are full, the police is now beating up the people severely, even peaceful protesters or people who are even randomly walking on the streets, beating up to break their limbs so they can’t go out on the protests in the following — in the following days. People who have been kept in prison cells — although the court has stated that these are illegal arrests, they’ve been kept there for many days. And in the first 72 hours, they have even been deprived from water and food.

So, we have an extreme breach and violation of human rights, and it’s terrifying if you think about the fact that Albania is a country that is supposed to join EU before 2030. And unfortunately, you see the European commissioner or the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who say that they trust that the government will fulfill their promise and meet their criterias to join EU.

ANJALI KAMAT: And, Bora, can you explain who the prime minister is, Edi Rama? He’s from the center-left Socialist Party. But the kind of repression that we’re seeing on the streets and the bravery of the protesters, where does this discontent come from?

BORA MEMA: Edi Rama pretends he is center-left, but he changes his position depending on what his interests are. So, he can pretend he’s a socialist. He can have an anti-fascist rhetoric when it comes to a specific socialist electorate who is nostalgic of — due to the anti-fascist legacy of Second World War. And he is not worried at all to kneel to Giorgia Meloni, the far-right prime minister of Italy, to sit or also to have negotiations and have refugee camps in Albania as an extraterritorial, which is against international law, because refugees are being sent from Italy into camps, like, to prisons in Albania. So, when it comes to his own interests, Edi Rama doesn’t care.

Edi Rama says he’s the head of the Socialist Party, and he is the head of the Socialist Party, but Socialist Party is not even center-left. It’s not even right. It’s a criminal organization. It’s an organized crime organization linked to the mafia. There are so many international reports that state that Albania is a narco-state. Albania is controlled by the mafia. Even the latest arrests and prosecutions that have been sent forward by the special prosecutor, supported by the EU, because it’s independent — luckily, it’s not dependent on the Albanian government — most of the cases are people linked to the mafia. Many scandals, many investigations, even from the Italian or international prosecutor offices that show the links between ministers and the mafia and the international mafia. So, the Socialist Party, it’s not a matter of ideological question, if it’s — is it a social democratic, or is it democratic left, or is it socialist, or is it neoliberal, as all the neoliberal policies that have been implementing so far, but it’s a matter of: Are they an organized organization, or are they a political party?

On the other hand, Edi Rama is not ashamed to say that in Albania there are no trade unions, so he invites foreign investors to come to Albania because there are no trade unions. Edi Rama pretends he’s socialist, but he has implemented the most austerity, repressive policies, than even compared to his other — to the former prime ministers, who have been also very authoritarian and right-wing prime ministers. Edi Rama pretends he’s a socialist, but he is not ashamed to use — to pretend that these protests are supported by antifa. First of all, even this is not true. This is [bleep]. It’s just his way to appeal to Trump, just in the same way as he is appealing to Trump by selling — not even by selling, by giving away our land.

I need to — I am also very sorry to the state that the American — the United States diplomacy has ended up that even a corrupt prime minister of a small country like Albania has the ability to bribe the president or the son-in-law of the president of the United States, although — so, of course, like, this — I’m so sorry for speaking like this, but, unfortunately, this is the state of the American diplomacy, and it shows that Rama is using antifa as a way to appeal even more to President Trump. This is [bleep], and this is [bleep]. There is no link between antifa in Europe or U.S. linked to what is happening in Albania.

But let’s assume for a moment that this is antifa. “Antifa” stands for “anti-fascist.” And of course that our protests are anti-fascist. We are not — the only fascist — the only only fascist thing happening is the repression from the police and from the government, which is threatening teachers that they are going to be dismissed for supporting students, which is threatening parents that they are not going to see their kids. It’s putting pressure on journalists, who have been — some of them have even been hit with rubber bullets, and journalists being dismissed and pressured if they speak up the truth and they are in the protests. This is fascism. Anti-anti-fascism is actually fascism. And unfortunately, this is what is happening right now.

AMY GOODMAN: Bora Mema, Bora, we want to thank you so much.

BORA MEMA: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for being with us, Bora Mema, longtime labor organizer, researcher and activist, also founding member of the left political party Lëvizja Bashkë.

Coming up, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of the new book End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Machines” by Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir.