"How will I campaign from a cell", Salianji in Politiko: Every day I spend here is a denunciation

Former MP Ervin Salianji has recounted in an exclusive interview for Politiko.al not only the days of 7 months of isolation in Fier prison, but also how he is experiencing an electoral campaign from his cell for the first time, a battle that he has led several times in the field.

He says that this period is difficult for him and he is experiencing it with strong emotions and the great pain of absence. 

Salianji emphasizes that, as he promised before his arrest, he will campaign from his prison cell, despite the limitations he faces in solitary confinement. 

Excerpt from the interview: 

As you know, the country is officially in the electoral campaign, but these are the first elections that
find you in isolation. Do you miss this moment? How are you experiencing it?

I miss them a lot, it is a great passion for me and now it seems to have turned into a mission from which I cannot escape, also due to the circumstances! I experience it with strong emotion, with the great pain of absence, with the anger of the inability to be everywhere and in every corner, as I am in the elections, with the revolt of the obstacle to express and share thoughts and opinions, to meet people and to talk to anyone. Elections, electoral battles, are my habitat. Simply, they have forcibly prevented me from being in my natural environment and contributing to a better Albania and a free society!

During the show "Top Story" where you were invited before your arrest, you announced that you would
also campaign from prison. What strategy will you use to communicate with
your electorate from prison?

The possibilities from here are very limited, especially when we consider the potential of the campaign on the ground, but my efforts have continued through communications through the lawyer that are then posted on social networks and the media, and through letters to friends and supporters.

With meetings with MPs, opposition leaders and communication and sharing of opinions with them. I do not have a central role in the campaign and concrete responsibility, but I feel that I have an even greater role as a public voice, as a right-wing politician and as a person who is robbed of my mandate and political commitment, clearly because I would be the winner in Elbasan, as I was before in Korça and Kavajë. As it seems clear, the goal has been to avoid the political battle!

Do you think your campaign from prison will have the same impact as a traditional campaign?

The biggest campaign I am doing is that I am indisputable, living proof of political persecution, of a totally degenerate system in the hands of an autocrat. Every day I spend here is a denunciation.
I hope and think that this will have an impact. Edi Rama organized the farce to silence me, but people have seen that I have not given up. With my stances, I want to encourage reaction, resistance, courage to face bad governance, corrupt and linked to crime.
I am convinced that on May 11, citizens will vote for a European Albania. European Albania is one where the indisputable values ​​of the rule of law, of constitutional guarantees for fundamental rights and freedoms, are no longer put to the test, and not that passport fairy tale that is told in the squares. Edi Rama and his government are the absolute opposite of every European value, with Edi we are moving towards despotism, towards rotation and a state with separation and balance of powers we are moving towards Europe!

Prepared by Suela Gjidede