In order to shield his power from the critiques of the opposition and his citizens, Prime Minister Edi Rama has fully embraced the idea that criticism toward him is automatically meant as critique of Albania. “Slinging mud against Albania,” “speaking against Albania,” “treason against Albania” constitute the words Rama constantly uses to describe the opposition’s critiques regarding the state of crime, drugs, and, especially, the ties of the government to crime.
This propaganda peaks in his accusations alleging that several EU Member States’ skepticism with regards to his fight against crime and corruption comes is affected by the opposition’s fraudulent descriptions of Albania’s state.
With this narrative, disseminated daily by his entire propaganda machine, Rama is rather obviously attempting to incite feelings of patriotism in order to use them against his critics.
Furthermore, in order to show that he truly believes what he preaches, in an interview from last week with France 24, he responded to a question regarding the injury journalist Blendi Kasmi sustained as a result of a clash with the police, as follows:
I think it’s not the kind of news that should take up space in the front pages of international publications. It is the country’s internal life, the opposition is protesting and there is a sitting government.
The interviewer’s insistent inquiries regarding people’s demands for the resignation of his Minister of Interior Affairs were met by Rama with:
When I am speaking in a foreign language, I never speak of the opposition, as I see it as part of the Albanian democratic life.
This silence in the face of human rights’ violations, police brutality, anti-government protests, crime, and corruption is anti-democratic and anti-European and deserves to be discredited as such.
However, most importantly, it highlights Rama’s hypocrisy when it comes to his own interests. The most poignant unmasking of his current stance comes in the form of his and the Socialist majority’s position during the case known as the “Griselda affair” at the end of 2011.
Griselda Roshi, the wife of former, then newly-elected, Kavaja mayor Elvis Roshi, faked a pregnancy, and, after mimicking a swollen belly via a pillow under her clothes for months, fabricated a whole kidnapping and claimed her kidnappers had forced her to give birth and then kidnapped her child.
Within a few hours after Griselda Roshi lied to her family thusly, the Socialist Party attacked the government and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha, accusing them directly of orchestrating this (faked) barbaric act, even stating as motive the desire for revenge against Roshi who had won Kavaja’s municipality a few months before.
Griselda announced the news before dawn, yet, within a few hours, Erion Veliaj emailed over 100 ambassadors, MEPs, EU Commissioners, U.S. Department of State and EU Member States representatives, international human rights organizations, with a message, naturally, in English:
Friends,
A sad piece of news has shocked all of us at the Socialist Party. The previous night, the pregnant wife of the newly-elected Kavaja mayor, Elvis Roshi, was kidnapped from a shopping center in Tirana. After being treated brutally from her kidnappers, she was brought to an unknown location, where her child was forcibly removed. At 4 in the morning, covered in blood, Ms. Roshi was left near her house in Kavaja (50 km from the capital).
No news from the police yet. Kavaja used to be the electoral district where Sali Berisha has been elected MP for 20 years. The Socialists won Kavaja for the first time on May 8, and this has been considered as the most symbolic win of the entire election. During the electoral campaign, Mr. Roshi and his campaign staff received threats as a result of him running for mayor. The head of the PS, Edi Rama, will release a press statement in an hour […]
Keeping in mind the very serious circumstances of the situation in Kavaja, this notification will be brief and we will provide you with further political information tomorrow.
Thank you,
Erion
While the following day it was revealed that the entire affair was a fabrication, neither Veliaj nor anyone else notified, let alone apologized to all the foreign representatives who received a message in English accusing Veliaj’s political opponent of a barbaric crime.
A few days later, in a joint parliamentary meeting between Albania and the EU in Brussels, MEP Tanja Fajon raised the “Griselda issue” and expressed the European Parliament’s deep concern about this brutal act, implying an accusation towards the government.
The Socialists, who never insult Albania, had failed to let Fajon know of the farce, be it in English or Albanian. Because they were the opposition then, and different rules, it seemed, applied.
