Berisha took over the protest by force

Today’s violence outside Parliament is no cause for concern, either for the protest or for the police. It was not a show of strength by what remained of the movement. It was an operation by Berisha to seize control of the protest through violence.

Those detained for the clashes, along with the others involved, are not anonymous outsiders. They are known DP activists, mostly from the Lezha region, particularly Laç and Lezha, as well as several people linked to Albin Kurti. They were brought to the protest in an organised effort to cause violence.

The only new element was that the violence was carried out in the protest’s name. But it did not belong to the protest we have been discussing. It was Berisha taking control of it by force.

The violence itself is politically unremarkable. It is nothing new. It has long been part of the DP’s identity. What matters is that Berisha used it to bring the protest under his control.

The first sign came once the clashes began. Berisha and his MPs walked into Parliament knowing that protesters would not throw eggs or other objects at them. For almost two weeks, Berisha had stayed away from Parliament to avoid precisely that humiliation. He returned only after taking command of the protest and full control of its violence.

Only a small and politically insignificant group of the original organisers remained. But they, too, are Democrats angered by the factional wars inside the DP. Violence is now the only thing that defines them politically.

So there has been one new political development, but no new form of violence.

Violence at Berisha’s protests is familiar and manageable. The only real damage it causes is injuries to police officers and to citizens who refuse to join in.

The protest has now been pulled back into the DP fold and placed under its control. That separates it from the civic protest that had erased the DP from the scene and left it politically dead for 50 days.

This will not bring the DP back to life. It will kill the protest, which had disguised itself as a civic movement. You may as well call this not the 51st protest, but the 551st. It is simply another in the long line of demonstrations Berisha has used to keep his political corpse alive for the past 35 years. It feeds the corpse. It does not keep hope alive.

Originally published in Albanian as: Berisha mori me dhunë pushtetin mbi protestën