Letter to Edi Rama
Ed’,
Imagine yourself as a demonstrator, in the middle of a protest, among people who have taken to the streets because they feel unheard, unrepresented, betrayed, tired.
Imagine yourself not as a prime minister watching the protest from afar, through screens, but as a young man standing among the crowd, hearing the screams, feeling the fear, and consider the main thing, that this anger did not arise today.
It all started with the railings that were put up to separate people from their space, the citizen from the city, the protest from the institution.
At first it seemed like a small issue, a debate about a public space, about wood, concrete, how a decision is made. But the railings quickly became a symbol of a power that divides, that puts barriers between itself and people.
From the railings we came to anger. From anger to the clash. And now, today Tirana is in flames. A sight that hurts all those who love Albania with all their hearts.
This is the picture you need to see with clarity: not just as a series of events, but as a political message.
When a citizen can no longer find a door to knock on, he takes to the streets.
When the road is not heard, anger becomes stronger.
When the government sees every criticism as a conspiracy, every protest as a threat, every opponent as an enemy, then society begins to speak the language of violence.
Violence cannot be the path to political change. Nor can the systemic violence of wrong decisions.
From the protest, amidst the voices, anger, and fear, it is more clearly understood that the crisis is not solved by statements from offices, by distancing oneself from people, or by political justifications. It requires listening directly, acknowledging what is wrong, taking political responsibility, and making effective decisions.
Man is not only revolted by what he lacks.
Man is also revolted by the feeling that no one listens to him. And a power that does not listen to Man, no matter how powerful it is, begins to become fragile because it revolts the deepest human feeling: dignity.
If you ask me what you should do now, the answer is simple:
It provides political solutions. Without taboos, without borders, and without fear.
Go out in front of the citizens.
Don’t hide behind the majority, institutions, or the number of mandates. Accept that trust is not restored with words, but with responsibility and actions.
Within the protest, the youth of Albania do not seek and are not satisfied with just calm.
People demand justice, dignity, transparency and guarantees. Their voices will not be heard until the streets are filled and the anger becomes impossible to ignore.
This time they have not come out just for the railings. They have come out for the way decisions are made about them without their presence. They have come out for an administration where employment is often tied to obscure reasons, and not to merit.
They have come to realize that their lives can be changed by arbitrariness, and they have nowhere to clash.
For an economy where connection to power is worth more than work. Selection more than competition.
For a justice that often seems delayed.
For a politics that demands their vote, which changes less and less, where the winners boast and the losers are destroyed. For the protection of the indefensible and the trampling of political morality.
They have come out for these and other things, but they are being ignored.
Violence cannot be the path to political change. But neither can firefighting be the answer to the crisis. What is happening is not just a clash in the street. It is a shaking of trust, an erosion of legitimacy, and a warning that the way of governing must change.
Don’t see this protest just as a threat to power. See it as an opportunity to understand what is happening to the country and the people it governs. If you are going to protect what has been built, you must be the first to pave the way for change.
Government is not always overthrown by opponents. It is often overthrown by the inability to understand the times. History has punished those who thought that a parliamentary majority could replace the trust of citizens.
82 mandates are not a mandate to not be accountable. They are a responsibility to govern even for those who did not vote for us.
People do not demand privileges. They demand that the state not be strong only with the weak. That powers be separated and accountable. They demand that the administration not be used for pressure, that employment not depend on connections, that favors not be distributed with preferential connections, and that justice not come only after the damage has been done. They demand that monopolies be fought and that life be affordable and humane.
A citizen who loses their job or is not promoted because they refuse to be part of any bargain is not a statistic.
A business that closes because it has no connection to power is not simply a loser in the market.
A family that waits years for justice is not a file. A working family that can’t afford life is not an exception.
These are people who, little by little, are losing faith that the state is theirs.
One cannot protect a privileged caste in the name of protecting the government.
The powerful cannot be protected from using their power to trample on people, property, business, and principles. Legal responsibility does not exclude political responsibility.
Corruption is not fought only with SPAK or the prosecutor’s office. It is fought by building an economic and institutional model where competition is fair and success does not depend on connections to power.
A state is not measured only by the roads it builds, but by the justice it guarantees. It is not measured only by growth figures, but by the way the ordinary person lives. It is not measured only by the number of investments, but by the question of whether the citizen has the opportunity to live with dignity, to compete and to build a free life.
We need a moral renewal at the foundation of institutions. A policy that puts the human being and his dignity at the center, not the interests of those who have unlimited and unjustified power.
Institutions are not only maintained by buildings and laws, but by the trust of citizens.
When the law is applied only to the weak, it is no longer justice, but organized fear.
When the institution only protects the strong, it is no longer a state, but a wall facing the citizen.
This protest demands a political response, not just a police response. It demands a truly national dialogue table for fundamental reforms, for a consensual electoral system that guarantees real representation, for the separation of party from state, and for the liberation of institutions from political instrumentalization.
We cannot seek peace by silencing the youth, no matter how loud the revolting voice. True peace is not the absence of noise; it is the presence of justice. A society is not peaceful because it does not protest, but because it has the confidence that it can change without conflict.
MPs cannot continue to depend solely on closed lists and the interest of political survival. We need more competition, more freedom, and less control over people’s lives.
A member of parliament must answer to the citizen, not just the party leader. Otherwise, parliament turns into a counting room, where votes are counted, but voices are silenced, lost.
The Socialist Party must also have the courage to change. With real elections within it, with merit, self-correction, responsibility, and paving the way for a new generation of leaders.
Gather the SP structures to make decisions. Lead the process of change, do not reinforce the myth of irreplaceability. We must move from the culture of the individual to the culture of the institution.
A party that does not know how to change from within is quickly forced to change from without. And change imposed from the street is always more painful than change thought out in time.
We don’t need people loyal to the party at all costs, but a party loyal to Albania.
Neither should political rotation be taboo. Nor should new elections be seen as a threat, if they become part of a democratic solution, with guarantees for free competition and participation by all. Elections should be an opportunity to restore trust, not another clash that divides the country into hostile camps.
Democracy is not the property of the winner. It is the responsibility of the winner, and a protection for the loser.
If elections are seen only as a way to seize power, then they remain a futile effort, an empty ritual, a coffin of victory.
If elections are seen as a way to give citizens a voice, then they become the foundation of the state, a guarantee of development.
Democratic paths must be opened everywhere, so that the roads are not closed by barricades.
It’s time for change.
It felt like a major responsibility.
It is not enough to say that the country is moving forward if a large portion of citizens feel forgotten.
It is not enough to talk about modernization if young people do not feel part of the future.
It is not enough to win elections numerically if you lose the trust of the people.
From the railings to today’s flames in the middle of Tirana, the message is clear: people do not want to live in a place where the government sees them only as numbers, only as votes to be counted, only as crowds to be managed. They want to be seen as citizens, as individuals with the right to object and demand accountability.
I believe that politics should be where people seek answers.
The answer they expect from you is not another speech. It is a decision.
A decision not to defend power at all costs. A decision not to call those who seek justice enemies. A decision not to confuse silence with peace and obedience with loyalty.
Albania above all. Not the party above all. Nor power above all.
Now it’s not enough to win elections.
Now you have to restore trust.
Now Albania must win.
We shouldn’t defeat society, we should elevate it.
You, the former idealist, the intellectual who mocked banality and in 2013, many right-wingers looked at you with sympathy – you can do it!
These are the words of someone who values you, who believes that the good within you is incomparably greater than everything else.
Elisa