The illusion of power spreading hatred

The protest has one achievement no one can deny.

Every small group in Albania, every person who feels unrepresented, frustrated, bullied, politically sidelined, professionally or financially failed — even someone who has failed in private life — now has the illusion that an army stands ready for his personal grievance.

That army is the protest.

This morning I read hundreds of threatening messages in my inbox, some of the most monstrous I have ever seen, from all the categories I mentioned above.

One person promised to kill my children. Another said he would destroy my property. Another said he would burn down my house. Someone knew where I parked my car. Someone threatened to rape my wife. Someone else said he would desecrate my parents’ graves. And there were dozens more like that.

Only one supporter of Albin Kurti was more merciful. He would kill me only if I mentioned Albin’s name one more time.

For someone not used to this kind of thing, and inclined to take it seriously, it would be enough to end up in their madhouse.

Then I started wondering why there is so much hatred among people who say they want to build a New Albania.

Think for a moment about those who suffered under the dictatorship. People whose parents or children disappeared and were never seen again. People whose parents and relatives were executed. People whose loved ones’ remains were lost and still cannot be found.

In 1991, they were broken people.

But they never called for hatred.

They believed society would take revenge for them and would do the right thing.

In truth, we did not. We never restored their dignity as we should have.

And yet they remain among the most tolerant people in Albania.

Compare that with the grievances of those who are in the square every day — grievances that, in fact, belong to almost everyone in the world, including those of us who do not join the protest — and then look at their hatred.

You understand that they now have the illusion of an army of their own, and that this army will write the law.

Listen to the madness they talk about: how they will build a new order in Albania, how the protest will choose the new parliament, how the new government will be selected by drawing lots, and how judges and prosecutors will read their decisions from the protest podium.

Then you understand that the only private property they truly own is hatred.

And their only illusion is that they can finally pour out that hatred because they believe the protest is their army.

This is not only the illusion of those who threaten journalists or public figures in their inboxes because those people have expressed doubts about the protest’s nonsense.

It is the illusion of every failure in this country who thinks he can now take revenge.

It is the illusion of small parties that want to look big.

You can see Agron Shehaj stretching his head out from behind every protester, grabbing him by the jacket and asking: “Would you like me as prime minister?”

And the protester says yes.

It is the illusion of dissatisfied people inside the Socialist Party who now think they can take revenge on Rama through that army.

It is the illusion of people inside the Democratic Party who are furious with Sali Berisha and think he has now been replaced by the people of the street.

It is the illusion of rich people who hate people richer than themselves.

It is the illusion of people convicted by justice who think the golden age of freedom is coming.

What they all have in common is the illusion that, for every grievance they have, there is now a shared army for them on the boulevard.

Sometimes it is 300 people.

Sometimes it is 3,000.

Even if it becomes 30,000 once a month, when everyone is mobilised, it still cannot change Albania.

Hatred cannot change Albania.

Especially when it comes from the margins of society.

The illusion of power in whose name they issue curses and sentences every day is only an illusion.

After a while, when they look back, they will see only their own shadow.

And that will not be the fault of old Albania.

It will be the fault of their old inability to become someone in this society on their own feet.

And enough with this worship of the protest’s so-called civic face.

There has never been anything less civic on the podium of any protest in Albania.

Nor have so many banal and frustrated people ever stood at the head of one.

As for the others — the rats in their holes who encourage this hatred — I know them.