Some activists responded by chanting “Rama in prison, Berisha in prison”. DP activists, meanwhile, used their own megaphone to keep the focus on the government.

That is the whole battle.

The DP, which has now fully joined the protest, will try to change its meaning. Until now, the protest has stood for a new Albania and for a rejection of both Rama and Berisha.

The DP will try to turn it into a simple anti-government protest.

Backed by Vetëvendosje activists, who are only anti-Rama, and by groups from the diaspora, the DP has a clear strategy: to dominate the square.

If it succeeds, it will not split the protest. It will take it over.

And when a protest has no declared leaders, the word “split” hardly applies.

Those who want to replace the opposition must also have the courage to appear in public and lead.

The group that yesterday demanded changes to the Electoral Code through a referendum, supposedly in the name of the protest, is an old NGO network in Albania — as old as Rama and Berisha. They are useful as activists, but they are not political leaders.

The small parties that have tried to identify with the protest’s slogan — “Rama in prison, Berisha in prison” — do not have the strength either to take over the protest themselves or to stop the DP from doing it.

So what we are seeing is not a split.

We are seeing the protest being absorbed by the DP.

The DP has the courage to enter the square and stand there even when people chant “Berisha in prison” — first to soften that slogan, and later to remove it altogether.

That is, of course, a blow to the civic spirit of the protest.

But it has not divided the movement.

It is simply defeating it, because those around the protest are still unsure whether they are ready to represent it.

Originally published in Albanian as: PD nuk po e përçan protestën, por po e përthith atë

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