Analyst and political scientist Ermal Hasimja has commented on the latest political developments in the country, focusing on the opposition protests, the possibility of the opposition uniting with the energy of the protesters, as well as the resignation of Evis Sala from the Ministry of Health.
Invited to Nisida Tufa's "This Week" show on News24Hasimja was asked what would really scare Prime Minister Edi Rama.
According to him, a protest with larger numbers and lasting for a longer period would have an impact, while another important element would be the transition to other forms of civil disobedience. But, according to Hasimja, what would have the strongest effect would be the unification of the opposition with the energy of the protest. Hasimja emphasized that the current protest includes groups and individuals with different political beliefs, but according to him, what unites them is the demand for a change of government.
"There should have been bigger numbers and for a longer time. However, this is just one of those things."
Of course, protests take other forms, civil disobedience and others, and these could worry him. In Kosovo, for example, there is a form of this that is done. That is, there are opposition MPs, often with activists from both opposition parties, who come out and block, for example, the entrance of the government.
It's not that I'm advising him, I'm simply showing it as an illustration. There are other forms everywhere in the world. Another thing that I think scares Rama is the unification of the opposition. And not just the unification of the opposition, the unification of the opposition and the energy of the protest. At this moment that we are talking about, this is absolutely difficult to happen. That is, even the DP, for example, had to swallow hard to accept that slogan "Rama in prison, Berisha in prison". It's not easy, it had to do some acrobatics.
There were two or three personalities from the DP who actually supported the protest from the beginning. However, this is another discussion. It is certain that at the beginning when the protest started from the opposition side they did not know how to react for 100 reasons. The main reason was that since the protest was apparently raised at first glance against the problems of Zvërnec where Ivanka, Trump and Kushner were also involved. Yes, this was the concern. The moment this concern was clarified, then the DP also joined and the other parties because the reluctance was actually relatively general in the opposition. But if there were a synchronization of these energies, of course then this would not scare Rama, but shake him to his foundations.
There are those who do not want the democrats to come out, the Marxists to come out, the Soroists to come out, the Flamingos to come out because there was also a fight with the Flamingos. I mean, in the end, those people are there, but they do not all agree with each other. You do not have a unique body to say that you have a homogeneous protest. People are there because they have different problems. They unite the main demands they have for the resignation of Rama and the government.
You have Shehaj, Lapaj, Qorri and others who are constantly there, despite the fact that from time to time there has been a kind of desire to expel or oppose them. The board is impossible there. I even think that it is not even desirable because how are you going to create a board when you have all these currents, all these different groups, it is a big problem. I think that in any case this does not eliminate the possibility that the people there will function and in fact these 96 days of protest have proven that the protest can function very well. It is a record protest. Albania has never seen anything like this. We have seen it in the region. It is unthinkable. Who could have thought of this four months ago? I am not saying two years ago, but four months ago. Who could have thought of this? If someone had told us in the studio; "look, one day the Albanians will rise up, they will stay in the square for 100 days". They would have laughed. That is, this has happened and for this to work, all parties, all people there will simply need to start from that request that they all have in common. But are they able to bring people together with them? I think so. As long as you start and add criteria beyond that basic request, including two or three others. The moment the government falls, you will have a caretaker government or a technical transition government, as you wish. I am more for a caretaker government, the example of Macedonia, but anyway, as long as you do not start and set filters, then you have people there in the square or if you have them in the square, maybe they will get tired one day. And despite this, the protest has still very successfully resisted all the problems," he declared.
During the interview, Hasimja also commented on Evis Sala's resignation from the Ministry of Health. He said that he tends to trust people for what they say, while linking the case to the difficulties faced by people coming from the diaspora and trying to function within the Albanian system.
"I tend to believe people for what they say and I think it was the resignation," said Hasimja. He added that he does not prejudge the specific case, as he does not know in detail the way in which Evis Sala has exercised his duty, but emphasized that the problem, according to him, lies deeper, in the way the system has been built. "I think that the system that has been built is a system that displays its problems in all different aspects," he said.
According to Hasimja, if public administration and services are seen primarily as sources of tenders, then their functioning is diverted from the purpose of providing public services. In this context, he argued that changing the system is difficult to achieve by the people who built it. “If you are going to destroy this kind of system, you cannot expect the destruction of the system to be done by those who built the system,” concluded Hasimja.
