Journalist and analyst Mentor Kikia has commented on the recent developments surrounding the protest against the Zvërnec project, assessing that it has now gone beyond the initial issue of ownership and has taken on a clear political dimension. According to Kikia, the protest is no longer focused solely on opposing the project in the Zvërnec area, but has transformed into a broader civic reaction to the government.
Kikia emphasized that the participants in the protest are mainly citizens, young people of Generation Z, and intellectuals, who according to him have not responded to the calls of political parties, but have joined spontaneously due to their concerns.
In an interview on the "Lunch Program in News24, he identified two main factors that, according to him, mobilized the protesters. The first is related to the recently released video showing violence against a citizen, which caused a strong public reaction. The second factor, according to him, has to do with environmental concerns and patriotic sentiment associated with the opposed project.
The analyst noted that the protest has also shown a rejection of the traditional political class, noting that many protesters are not only criticizing the government, but also the opposition. According to him, the presence of women, family members and young people has given the protest a different profile from traditional political protests, making it more inclusive and with more civic energy.
Commenting on the government's reaction, Kikia said that it is normal for the government not to support protests that challenge it, while recalling that Prime Minister Edi Rama has previously shown that he is sensitive to large-scale civic movements, such as protests against chemical weapons or the student movement. However, he expressed skepticism that the government will back down in the face of the protesters' demands or that it will accept scenarios such as the establishment of a technical or caretaker government.
"The protest has clearly moved from Zvërnec, not simply because it is no longer geographically in that area, but its content is no longer the issue of ownership that the residents raised. What is clearly read is the political dimension of the protest. Every protest is political, deeply political. And the protests of political pensioners are that they have demands for the government. But it is not partisan. The composition of the protesters are citizens, and not people designed or gathered by someone. They are generation Z and intellectuals, who have not responded to the call of a party logo. What brought these people together? There are two reasons that brought them together. That famous video where the citizen was raped. This revolted the citizens. This was the first spark. But another element is the environmental issue and the patriotic plan.
Then the adrenaline is created, which mainly includes teenagers and young people. There are a couple of reasons here too. The political dimension of the protest made a kind of vision clear since the protesters are young. This made them against an outdated political class, like the leader of the DP who has been there since 1990. The protesters are calling more for political imprisonment for Rama and Berisha. This protest devalued the DP protest. A DP protest under these conditions will seem minor and worthless in terms of the color of the presence of women and children, who use young boys and Molotov cocktails. Don't expect a government to agree with the protesters. This doesn't happen anywhere in the world. So it is logical for the government to be against the protests. Rama smells when the protest can escalate into a civic movement, as was the case with the chemical weapons protest and the student protest. "I do not believe that Rama will surrender, to move towards an agenda previously articulated by the opposition, to establish a caretaker, technical government to work for a government that prepares the ground for the country to carry out a different electoral process. There is nothing clear about what the protest will require. It is a more energetic protest," he said.
