Rama on protests: People coming from Kosovo and North Macedonia to “save Albania”

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that there is significant international involvement in the protests against the project in Zvërnec, claiming that people are coming from Kosovo and North Macedonia, Koha reports.

“There is a strange form of international interference. People from Kosovo and Macedonia are coming to save Albania in the name of Albanians, while those who speak reasonably clearly understand that something is not right here,” Rama said at a meeting of the Socialist Party parliamentary group.

According to him, the government has no right to ignore citizens’ criticism and anger, but neither can it abandon its leadership role in the face of the current pressures.

“A governing leadership does not yield to noise, and the more noise there is, the stronger its identity and sense of direction become,” Rama said, as quoted by Euronews.

Rama had previously noted that the case is interesting not so much for what it reveals about governance in Albania, but rather for the way local debates can take on global dimensions in the era of social media and international political polarization.