The 'parallel reality' of Rama's rallies in front of thousands of protesters

Thousands of citizens have been protesting in Tirana and other cities across the country for ten days against a massive tourist investment in the Pishë Poro-Nartë protected area and against corruption and the way Prime Minister Edi Rama governs, demanding his resignation.

And while the protests on the ground are becoming more and more massive, accompanied by protests from the diaspora and strong reactions on social media in comments and petitions, Rama has chosen to respond in impromptu meetings for the 35th anniversary of the Socialist Party - similar to anti-rallies.

Rama appears every day in political meetings with Socialist Party militants, organized at the same time slot when protesters pour into the squares and broadcast live on his social networks and on television screens.

In the lengthy speeches given during this tour, in an attempt to maintain public attention, Rama has attempted to devalue popular anger, presenting it as politically motivated or part of foreign interests opposing the country's development.

On more than a few occasions he has also used intimidating, sexist, and derisive language towards protesters.

Political analysts see this communication strategy that the prime minister has chosen as an attempt to create a parallel reality, which is highlighting a contrast of values; the narrative of development success in the face of citizens demanding transparency, accountability, and political responsibility.

For Afrim Krasniqi, director of the Institute for Political Studies, the meetings also represent 'nonsense' and a deep discrepancy between his rhetoric and what is actually happening in the country.

"Rama uses rhetoric that he is working for the future of Albania and has a project and a vision that no one else has, but this is in stark contrast to the younger generation that is protesting, demanding his resignation and blaming him for the transition, for high corruption, for the lack of a sense of responsibility," Krasniqi said.

Rama's tour, according to Krasniqi, is essentially about his personal survival as well as the interests of a lobbying group that controls public finances, the media, and state and representative institutions, including the Socialist Party.

"Rama should display at least the minimum standards of communication and behavior of a country with EU standards, while his rhetoric is offensive, discriminatory, populist and contrary to all the principles that the EU promotes and that are obligations for Albania," said Krasniqi.

Even for Agron Haxhimali, director of the Albanian Institute of Municipalities, Rama's political meetings show that Albanians are living in two different realities.

"The truth and the hearts of citizens who are within their minimalist right to demand services and transparency and government propaganda, but not only that, which speaks of a developed tourist Albania, while citizens are on the boulevard and in every city protesting against this government," he said.

"A responsible government and a prime minister with integrity would have urgently stopped these meetings," he added, while emphasizing that "the current priority is the Albania that thousands of citizens are seeking."

For Haxhimali, the most worrying thing in these meetings is the political use of public administration at a time when negotiations with the EU have opened and European standards of state formation are being aimed at.

"There are no more doubts or indications here, they are facts," he says, adding that "the Socialist Party is within its right to celebrate with its members, but employees paid by Albanian taxpayers should not leave public service for political meetings."

According to Haxhimali, these un-European phenomena should be stopped with legal sanctions against any public employee, any central and local official who orders and allows such actions.

Even for Krasniqi, the administration's participation in these political meetings is an indicator that the current majority has not only not learned lessons from past criticisms, from the OSCE-ODIHR and the EU, but that "the concept of patronage and militants continues to dominate the concept of the state."

"The fact that Rama closes meetings with 'long live the patronageists' and not with 'long live Albania' is not a matter of nationalism, but of extreme deviation from democratic principles and deformation of the representative system," he stressed./ REPORTER.AL