In an interview with News24, well-known analyst Fatos Lubonja commented on the fines imposed on protesters, describing them as part of an effort by Prime Minister Edi Rama to consolidate a new phase of his rule.
Lubonja said the country was moving from what he called a “media-driven narco-state regime” toward a “police-style narco-state regime.”
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According to the analyst, as a regime becomes more criminalized, it can set off a chain of further actions to cover up earlier abuses and remain in power.
“This is an attempt by Edi Rama to enter a new chapter of his rule. He is trying to move from a media-driven narco-state regime to a police-style narco-state regime. It is not only the police who are used. All the institutions of the state that, in a democracy, in a normal country, should ensure citizens are treated equally by the state instead serve inequality: they serve the group that keeps Edi Rama in power. It is a new perversion, and I do not know how successful it will be. This is familiar in regimes.
“To cover up one crime, the more criminalized a regime becomes, the more it is compelled to commit other crimes to stay in power. That is the danger posed by regimes.
“In a democracy where power changes hands, this danger is reduced because those who have committed abuses are punished at the ballot box, and of course through the justice system. It is a politics in which crime begets crime, and it could take us even further down this path if we are not strong enough to stop it. By ‘we,’ I mean not only the opposition, but all of society and people within institutions, who must not become tools of a regime that grows more criminal by the day,” Lubonja said.
The analyst also said the regime weakens as the number of people who are not afraid grows.
“Unity gives you the greatest courage. The more people there are who are not afraid, the weaker the regime becomes. Reducing their numbers works in its favor. But if people come together and show solidarity, that gives you strength and courage,” he said.
Invitation to dialogue
The analyst also commented on calls for dialogue, describing Prime Minister Edi Rama’s offer as a process with no real possibility of communication between the sides. According to Lubonja, the prime minister wants to hold a dialogue with a mirror—that is, with people who make him look good.
“As for dialogue, Rama’s dialogue is like the wolf’s dialogue with the lamb. The wolf says to the lamb, ‘Look, you’ve muddied my water.’ ‘I’m downstream,’ the lamb tells him. ‘You’re upstream. How could I have muddied it?’ ‘You muddied it six months ago.’ ‘I hadn’t been born six months ago,’ the lamb says. ‘Well, your father muddied it, so I’m going to eat you.’ Everyone knows Rama’s capacity for dialogue. He does not engage in dialogue even with himself or his own people, much less with his opponents. He wants a dialogue with a mirror that makes him look good, with people who tell him how great he is, that he is Skanderbeg … but that is not dialogue; it is a monologue,” Lubonja said.
