The new protester and the “sharp sickle” she has grabbed

There are childish mistakes we can tolerate when they come from ignorance or lack of political experience. That applies to Marjana, the protest’s newest political figure.

As I have said before, her departure from the Socialist parliamentary group is a success for the protest, and perhaps its only concrete political result so far. It is not necessarily a personal success for Marjana. She may have had other reasons for leaving. But she used the protest well. Presenting it as the reason for her move was a political instinct, and it allowed her to capitalise on the gesture.

There is merit in that.

But after that, carrying the weight of the protest becomes much harder — especially if you are not really carrying it.

Marjana seems to have ended well as a Socialist MP, but she is starting badly as a protest figure.

Today she posted a message on social media suggesting that she had been threatened by the Bajri family, although she did not say so directly. She spoke of threats and warned that, if they touched her family, she would “destroy” them. She did not quite cite the article of the Kanun from which this power supposedly derives, but she seemed to assume that everyone should know both the Kanun and Gheg.

If she has been threatened, she should file a legal complaint. Then she should face the media and explain publicly what has happened. In cases this serious, a politician speaks first to law enforcement and then to the public. Only after that does she seek support from citizens and from justice.

Marjana skipped those steps and went straight to the third one: threatening a criminal group with “destruction”.

It is not that anyone feels sorry for the fate of a criminal group in Marjana’s hands. But this is not political language. It is not civic language either. Above all, it is not the identity the protest needs.

The idea that matters should now be settled personally, through “destruction”, rather than through order, police and law, is childish in its desire for attention and dangerous because of the enthusiasm with which the crowd applauds it.

Enemies of public order and criminals who use threats deserve serious punishment. But courage in confronting them means denouncing them by name, with convincing facts. It does not mean threatening them back.

We have entrusted the force of law, and the force used against crime, to the police and the courts. A politician has only public courage at her disposal. And public courage does not mean threatening people like an outlaw on social media. It means naming them, denouncing them and putting the state to the test.

From now on, Marjana should remember that acts like this no longer damage the Socialist Party, or anyone else. They damage the protest.

She should behave like a politician supporting a civic movement, not like someone promising to destroy or cut down anyone who stands in her way with a “sharp sickle”.

Not because she frightens anyone. But because, after entering the public imagination through photos with goats and flowers by the Drin, it is quite a contrast to appear now with a “sharp sickle” in hand, ready to cut off the heads of imaginary enemies.

Calm down a little. Even if people are not scared, the goats may be — and that would be a great loss.

So it would be better to give up the idea that people, parties or those in power should feel threatened by you because you have a “sharp sickle”. Especially bandits.

You can defeat them without threatening them.

You can defeat them by refusing to behave like a thug, and by not warning them that, when you come down to Tirana, you will cut them with your “sharp sickle”.

You can defeat them by showing that you are not like them.

Because if you are like them, no one needs you.

Even if you are stronger than they are.

Originally published in Albanian as: Neoprotestuesja dhe “kmesa e mprehtë” që ka rrëmbyer