Three tragicomic paradoxes of the protest

The first paradox of the protest is the gap between the people in the square and the people organising it.

Now that the organising group has been made public, it is clear that the people in the square are far above those who have taken control of the protest — both culturally and in personal stature.

This shows that the protest has not chosen its own representatives to lead it. Instead, a group of organisers has chosen to privatise the protest for its own purposes.

That first paradox then produces all the others: the lynching language, the psychopaths who take the microphone, the nonsense they pass off as ideas, the religious misuse, and the delusions spoken in the name of the people.

If the protest has ended up with an organising group below the level of the protesters, there are only two possible explanations.

Either the real organisers want to use a list of mediocrities they can discard once the job is done, or no one is prepared to attach their own name to a protest without knowing how it will end.

In both cases, the quality of this organising group will remain a reference point whenever we call the protest “historic”.

Stupidity is often the most historic thing in this country.

The second paradox is that the heart of the protest is the Democratic Party and Albania’s permanent opposition class.

They do not care if someone chants “Berisha in prison”. They do not care if others have captured the protest.

They are its most determined part.

But in practice, the protest is working against the Democratic Party and in favour of a new radical left, where the usual delusions of Marxists, environmentalists and LGBTQ activists are mixed together, as they are everywhere else.

It is also working in favour of an antisemitic Islamic party which, even if it has not been formalised, exists and functions as an illegal detachment in Albanian politics, backing one side or the other depending on the instructions it receives.

I cannot say I feel much pity that the Democratic Party is holding the square while Qorri is eating the feast.

But it is interesting to watch the radical left bring an Italian neo-communist to the protest, as if to prove that European support for the protest belongs to the neo-communist extreme left.

The Democratic Party could also have brought one of those German MPs it sends to Berisha’s office.

It would not have made the protest any bigger.

But at least it would have given the Democratic Party some reward for the work it is doing to fill the square.

As it stands, they are working like labourers for the radical left.

The third paradox is the angry Socialists of Edi Rama — or those angry with Edi Rama, inside and outside the party — who have become great supporters of the protest.

They are free to oppose Rama. Politically, they can leave nothing unsaid or undone against him.

But their behaviour as owners of the protest, trying to show Rama that they too now have an army that can defeat him, is ridiculous.

I am not talking about the old Socialists who think this situation can be solved by bringing the jackets of 1997 back to power.

For them, this is simply a chance to show Rama they are still alive.

The real protest is a protest by people who are not represented by Edi Rama and his power.

It is not a protest by people who failed to realise their ambitions inside Edi Rama’s power.

The protest did not begin in order to reform the Socialist Party.

It began as a “revolution” against the current political system — which is, in fact, a sentence not even those who say it understand, let alone those who adore it.

But the people in the square are not worried about careers inside the Socialist Party, or about Edi Rama’s personal preferences inside his own power.

So the Socialists who want to take revenge on Rama through the protest look less like heretics of an old power they believe is collapsing, and more like servants of a new power they think is coming.

They are the most tragicomic part of this whole story.

Originally published in Albanian as: Tre paradokse tragjikomike që ka prodhuar protesta