Rama: Zvërnec became part of an ideological war! The world did not wake up because of Narta’s fate, but because of Kushner’s name and the shadow of his father-in-law, Trump

The Newsroom

At the meeting of the Socialist Party (PS) parliamentary group, Prime Minister Edi Rama again commented on the protests over Zvërnec, saying that the world did not wake up because of Narta, but because of Kushner’s name and the shadow of his father-in-law, Donald Trump. Rama says that Zvërnec became part of an ideological war.

“The violent degradation of a vulgar brawl between private security guards and a protester became the origin of a global online war, where no trench was left without firing off its ammunition. Had it been about the world of Narta, it could have quietly turned even 10 years ago, when the flamingos no longer migrated toward its lagoon, because they were met by the bullet of hunters drunk on two legs.

The world did not wake up because of Narta’s fate, but because of Kushner’s name and the shadow of his father-in-law, whom all the online armies hate to death. And as in a film, the boulevard matched that fearsome arena with the entire army of Albanian haters, online and offline. Not against Trump, but against me and against you. Their minds deceived them that the global tent of this protest would perform the miracle that the local tent of my Lul’s protest could not, and thus two old scores would be settled. The big world would shame Trump in the battle of Narta,” Rama said.

Developments ordered by time (latest first)

12:49 — “There are lost souls inside the PS who want a new Albania,” Rama to his own: Bring me the draft! Whoever doesn’t want to go to the filming set, let them stay here
Chief Socialist Edi Rama closed the PS group meeting with criticism aimed also at his own. There are lost souls even among us, Rama said, who want a new Albania. And for others, still within his own political family, Rama said that the European Union “card” seems a little tired to them. But Rama was clear when he told them that whoever does not want to go to the filming set and join the protesters should stay in the PS and see that the card for the EU is not his own, but is the card of Albania’s history.

“There are also intellectuals in our political family who say this EU card is a bit of a tired card. All these people who have studied my cards with such passion, you have them there at the filming set. Whoever does not want to go to the filming set, let them stay here in the PS and look closely at the fact that I have no cards of my own. The EU card is the card of Albania’s history. We are not here to win the day’s number of clicks; we are here to win Albania 2030 in the EU.

It is also a call for a new agreement, a new Albania. There are lost souls here too in our political family who want a new Albania. I can hardly wait for them to bring us the draft of the new Albania, written down, and we are right there to make a deal, but I fear the draft will never come, because the new Albania is like all the silhouettes of flamingos, one of which Fatos Lubonja was holding. Fatos below, the flamingo above, HA HA HA, and so the new Albania too. We will be criticized, we will be attacked, but we have an obligation not to choose the easier path,” Rama said.

12:40 — PM Rama: I have no bought followers on social media!
Prime Minister Edi Rama has declared that he has no bought followers on social media. Rama made the comments during his speech at the expanded meeting of the PS Parliamentary Group and the Government, where he said the government cannot accept becoming a slave of the algorithm.

“I am very active on social media, I have shared this with you and with some of you, if one of the things I expect to come to me when I am no longer in this post, it is that I will no longer need to knock on the algorithm’s door, but I do not believe that in the mirror of FB, INSTAGRAM, I do not believe that I can be steered by the noise, by the wind and by the waves that may rise there. The wiser ones have suggested to me that I should just not speak, stay, listen, because there… There where? Where there?

I may feel responsible for many things that could go better, but I and you, the PS, cannot feel guilty because, not that crowd, because the planet gathers if it wants to lecture us and impose itself on us, to the point of forcing us to accept that we are slaves of the algorithm; this cannot happen. I believe in the politics that wakes up, lives and goes to sleep with real people, not with the fake profiles of the ‘ballibullists.’ On my page there is not a single bought follower,” Prime Minister Rama said.

12:38 — “Albania is not a flamingo to be dragged around,” Rama: The EU is our Ithaca, we will integrate the country at any cost
Prime Minister Edi Rama, commenting on the Zvërnec protests, says his government will not retreat from its goal of integrating Albania into the European Union.

“Albania is not a flamingo to be dragged around to look pretty. Albania is a country that today is in a great war with itself, and the EU is our Ithaca. Let the sirens sing, that is their job, we have other work. We have a duty to take Albania to that shore at any cost. Do not be surprised that on this road many others will come out at our sides, behind us, in front of us. This is the hardest road, it is my road, yours, ours, the PS’s,” Rama said.

12:31 — Protesters demand his resignation, Rama: A government never hands the wheel over to the noise! The leader pursues his aim to the end
Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that a leader with a strong aim pursues that aim to the end at any price, without being influenced by external factors. From the expanded meeting of the PS Parliamentary Group, Rama said that Albania’s EU membership cannot be achieved if the government takes its direction from wherever the wind blows.

“When there are moments like these, I take pleasure in recalling a detail in Homer, ‘when Odysseus approaches the sirens and refuses to listen to them.’ On the contrary, he insists on listening to them, because only the one who listens understands how great the temptation is. He does one more thing: he binds himself very tightly to the ship’s mast, not because he lacks faith in himself, but because he does not negotiate the destination. And what he might do to himself by throwing himself into the water after the sirens, he prevents with the ropes that bind him to the mast.

Because he knows that anything can happen, but the aim is what has brought him that far and what carries him to the end. A government has no right to shut its ears, but to listen. They have been heard. A government must not throw all the blame onto the algorithm; this is not the case here. But there is one thing a government never does if it is there with a destination. A government never hands the wheel over to the noise. A group of leaders does not surrender to the noise.

The more the noise grows, the more a leadership group strengthens its own identity, uniting everyone in the name of the destination. A state like the one we are building is not built, and a historic mission like the one that fell to us, to make Albania part of the EU, giving Albania its second greatest moment after the League of Prizren, is not carried to the end, if his government takes its direction from wherever the wind blows and is swayed by the noises, the winds, the sirens and the waves. At any price, a leadership group goes to the end,” Rama said.

12:24 — Rama: There is no reasonable Albanian who would accept Tirana becoming a catwalk territory for a crowd that goes to block the airport
Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that no reasonable Albanian supports the protests that, according to him, parade through Tirana and go to block the airport. The prime minister further said that at the protests taking place in Tirana, people are coming from various countries to protest in the name of Albanians.

“We are in a laboratory. In a laboratory where, in real time, the algorithm and the lie produce a parallel reality that finds its way far faster than the facts do. What remains to be done is for us to refuse to chase every wave. What we must do is govern Albania according to the contract we have with the Albanian people and not according to the algorithm. To keep moving forward. To listen, of course. No one can say there is not much truth in what is being said. Our choice is forced. It is not a choice that is one among several choices. Our choice is to do everything so that we give people the good news. We have a problem with services, of course we do, but today over 3 million Albanians inside and outside the country take 95% of services from their phones without meeting a single person. Within that 95% we have as many issues as you like.

We have a duty that no one else has. We have the duty to build. The state is not built by waging war through the channels of the algorithms, in the name of improvement. The state is built by not losing the direction of history. I have had many messages as if it had crossed my mind to resign. Because more and more people are coming to their senses. More and more people believe that this stands neither on earth nor in heaven. No reasonable Albanian can accept Tirana becoming a catwalk territory for a crowd that goes to block the airport. What remains is a group with a striking mixture, which is a pan-national mixture. People come from Kosovo, from Macedonia and other countries to save Albania, in the name of Albanians. Even those from the banks, the well paid, with their lives understand very well that there is something here that is not right at all,” Rama said among other things.

12:15 — “I have never been to Aruba, a recycling of the algorithm,” Rama: “Druggie,” the refrain that follows me as if it were truth
From the PS group meeting, Prime Minister Edi Rama says he was never part of the meetings in Aruba, as is claimed online. Rama said that in the age of algorithms, the continuous repetition of a claim is enough for it to be perceived as truth.

“Fatos Lubonja demands an accounting from me over Aruba. In all of human history, ever since the rules of Roman civilization were set, the accounting is given on the basis of facts. What value is there in me saying that I have never been to Aruba, that I have no idea what this is about, that I never sent anyone? These have no value, because Aruba has been made true, it has been pushed out into this field of the algorithm, it has been recycled endlessly and has been made true.

Just as it has been made true that I am a cocaine user. The word ‘druggie,’ ‘get lost, you druggie,’ is a refrain that follows me as if it were truth. Just as it is ‘true’ that I have accused my own father of a relationship with my wife and over the paternity of my son, whatever I say has been made true. The court papers do not matter, the algorithm has made it true, just as they have made it true that I am a thief who takes my cut from every kind of thing that is done in Albania. For this reason I do not say this thing regularly, because it has no value,” Rama said.

12:13 — “Edi Rama is finished,” the prime minister mocks the chants at the protest: The evening goes and the morning comes, but here I am
Prime Minister Edi Rama mocked the protest chants of “Edi Rama is finished”:

“To give this a revolutionary pathos, there in the square the refrain begins, Edi Rama is finished. The thing is, the evening goes and the morning comes, and there is no one there, because the square opens in the evening, while I am here, we are here. And the next day comes, the years go, the prophecy continues, because even if it has not come true, it goes viral and here we are today. For decades on end we have fought for freedom of expression, rightly, without it there is no democracy, but in the meantime, without realizing it, we have entered another social hell. An age where the problem is the limitlessness of the freedom to distribute. Today there is no need to censor the facts. It is enough to drown them. This is the new situation of our time: fact and lie are two units of the way the algorithm works, which does not ask who is right, but who holds attention captive the longest. To that one it gives a push, to the other it lowers distribution,” Rama said.

12:08 — “Zvërnec,” Rama: You do not win against the PS by showing up with a rusty spoon in the market of lost careers
Prime Minister Edi Rama continued his comments on the protests against the tourism project in Zvërnec, criticizing those who, according to him, are trying to build a political career on the conflict and anger produced on social media. Rama said you do not win against the PS by showing up with a rusty spoon in the market of lost careers.

“But those of the career are the most ridiculous. Because they have not understood that you do not win against the PS and us by showing up with a rusty spoon in the market of lost careers. The algorithm finds it indispensable that there appear also the prophets who announce the end of the world, the analysts who make analyses without facts, the strategists who do not know what it means to make sectoral strategy. For them it does not matter what is being built; for them what matters is what must be torn down and how to tear it down, because only on the ruins of others’ work can they rise onto the pedestal of grandeur, on the virtual stage where they collect the likes, the followers. For them every incident is a revolution. How many years have we been listening to the heralds of coming storms, of the end of this political force; every protest is an occasion for overthrow, not for the issue. Every protest for the issue is the most legitimate thing, and when you are ready to invite a discussion to understand how the issue can be better addressed, no one shows up, because to be part of the tsunami is far more important than to be part of the solution. Each one is after something, seeks it through that wave of madness, feeding the algorithm and the opposite of what they claim to be there for,” Rama said.

11:59 — “Zvërnec” / Rama criticizes the bloggers: They have turned into ‘parelinj’ (instant rich) with saddle and creams! They come out to protest only so as not to be left out of the wave
Prime Minister Edi Rama, again today from the meeting of the PS Parliamentary Group, attacked the bloggers and influencers who support the protests against the investment in Zvërnec.

“How many times have you heard it these days from people who never in their lives even imagined getting mixed up in protests, but who have become ‘parelinj’ (instant rich) with saddle and creams, so that they appear there together with their saddles and their creams, because it is the trend. They are afraid of being left out of the wave. Because in the attention economy, silence is not rewarded. Only participation is rewarded. The one who makes the most dramatic video is rewarded. And a protest is no longer a protest, but a market of clicks and of morality, even a market of careers,” Rama said among other things.

11:56 — PM Rama: The 21st century is producing the proletariat of the algorithm! Democracy is confronting the man who has built nothing in his life
Prime Minister Edi Rama stated that the 21st century is producing the proletariat of the Algorithm. According to Prime Minister Rama, the power of the algorithm has given people something that was once earned only through years of work: visibility. Rama said that today democracy is confronting the man who has never done anything in his life and who wants to govern the country.

“Whoever goes and seeks a like and a follow with anger works against his own children. Every age produces its characteristic figure. If the 19th century produced the industrial proletariat, the 20th century produced mass-media society, the 21st century is producing the proletariat of the algorithm. A new class united not by work, but by attention. United not by production, but by the taste of consuming oneself on the screen. And above all united by a very great illusion, that the more you are seen, the more authority you have. I have not believed that democracy is the property of experts and politicians, because I really believe it is the property of citizens. Freedom of speech in functional democracies has never overturned the unwritten law of the gravity of knowledge. On the basis of knowledge, decision makers have made decisions.

Today, for the first time in history, democracy is confronting the man who may never have built anything, who may never have done any schooling and who has never run an office with 3 people. Nevertheless this type wakes up in the morning convinced that he understands the state better than anyone. Because the algorithm has given him something that was once earned only through years of work: visibility. Placing oneself in the attention of others. Not by making any proposal for the homeland, but by shouting ‘death to the traitors’ of the homeland. It does not matter whether what is being spread is right. It is enough for it to be strong and scandalous. Precisely in this climate something else also happens. As soon as a crisis is created, a collective exaltation erupts, everyone waiting to become part of it, because of the fact that a stage has been created to be seen and to gather the greed that the algorithm, just like a drug, drives you to increase the dose,” Rama said among other things.

11:46 — The Zvërnec protests, Rama: The protest square, a studio to feed the algorithm! Whoever thinks they do politics with likes is mistaken
Prime Minister Edi Rama commented at the PS group meeting on the protests against the tourism project in Zvërnec, saying that in the age of social media, protests no longer take place only in the square. According to him, protests serve more and more as material for the algorithm on social media, which favor conflict, anger and clashes. Rama said the 20-day protest showed how the square has turned into a studio to feed the algorithm.

“Whoever thinks that with likes and followers they do politics, or do only politics, is mistaken. With likes you do the service of those biggest oligarchs of the planet, who through the algorithm grow richer every day. The algorithm does not reward calm, because calm is the enemy of the algorithm; the algorithm does not reward nuance, it hides it, because nuances are adversaries of the algorithm. The algorithm does not love reason, which is why all the posts, on all the platforms, that are boring have a far slower distribution than those that are attractive. The algorithm is there to reward conflict, indignation, the intimidation of others. Because intimidation produces clicks, clicks produce time, and time produces money. For the first time in history, the attention economy has become political economy: the more anger, the more visibility, influence, power over the slaves of the algorithms. This is the reason why today protests do not take place only in the square, but need a square simply as a representation of a pack that protests in the algorithm. The square is even a television studio, it is the place where the material is filmed to feed the algorithm and to justify it. This is the battle of our time, it has nothing to do with the left and the right, but with conflict. Whoever seeks likes and follows with anger works against his own children,” Rama said.

11:42 — Koçeku’s departure from the PS group? Rama: They rode this party as much as they could, then began to throw at it the shoes they bought from atop the horse
Prime Minister Edi Rama “jabbed” at MP Marjana Koçeku (Neomalsorja) who left the PS and will stay in Parliament as an independent legislator. During his speech at the Expanded meeting of the PS Parliamentary Group, Rama said that “those who rode this party as much as they could and, when they fell off the horse, began to throw at it the shoes they bought from atop the horse.”

“A striking accumulation of things that are neither the same nor together, but that gathered together in a tide that washed up onto the shore of all that virtual ocean, down to the teeth of those who rode this party as much as they could and, when they fell off the horse, began to throw at it the shoes they had bought from atop the horse,” Rama said among other things.

11:37 — “Zvërnec” / Rama: Criticism has become identity! The fight is not for the problem to be solved, but for it to continue
Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on the protests taking place against the investment in Zvërnec, saying that criticism of governance is necessary, but not when, according to him, it turns into identity. For Prime Minister Rama, in Albania politics is done not to solve the problem, but by making sure the problem continues.

“We can only do what is done to understand politics today. There is much of this present day that philosophers and historians described long before we came, before Facebook and TikTok. They can help us understand what is happening. One of those who did not live in the age of the internet helps us understand much faster the mechanism that feeds the story of the algorithms with such success. When criticism becomes identity and when a person no longer fights for the problem to be solved, but for it never to end. Because when the problem is solved, another problem must be found. Naturally politics is not a kitchen, but human mechanisms do not change so much, and political ones not at all. The object changes, the mechanism remains. Today it is a project, tomorrow a law, then an alliance, then a guard or a drunk policeman. The object does not matter; what matters is that the engine does not stop. Because when it stops, there is no more fuel,” Rama said.

11:28 — PM Rama: Zvërnec became the navel of the world; for 20 days Albania has turned into the eye of a digital cyclone
Prime Minister Edi Rama spoke at the expanded meeting of the PS Parliamentary Group regarding the investment in Zvërnec.

“For 20 days Albania has turned into the eye of a digital cyclone. A whirlpool larger than the dimensions of our country. This whirlpool drew in young women, young men, digital patriots, comedians turned into candidates, the delirious in their qeleshe caps, people from all continents, social and traditional media from all continents, political parties in Europe and in the USA, actors of the tourism business in the region and state actors malign toward Albania. Naturally also the opposition crayfish of our country. Suddenly Zvërnec became the navel of the world, where the fate of global warming was being decided. The boulevard of Tirana became the square where hundreds of thousands of people, according to Sanders himself, rushed at the world oligarchy. The Albanian world equated itself with the hysteria of the social channels, uniting into a single liberation army the most elegant birds in the world, the Flamingos, with the bottom of the digital cauldron,” Rama said among other things.