The 54th day of the civic revolt outside the doors of Parliament marked one of the darkest and most violent moments in the clash between a degraded government and citizens demanding accountability. What is happening in Tirana is no longer simply the management of public order, but an open act of state aggression: the use of blue-colored water, pepper spray and poisonous gas against peaceful protesters.
Images of injured people, with severe skin burns and breathing difficulties, are circulating around the world, exposing the true face of a regime that has chosen violence as its only means of survival.
Anatomy of a Criminalized System
Criminals hidden behind the uniform — which belongs to the public and not to the personal guard of the government court — are carrying out barbaric violence under the direct orders of the police leadership structures, as in the case of Skënder Hitaj.
Instead of guaranteeing security and the enforcement of the law, the law enforcement leadership structures have been turned into a private profit-making enterprise. The accusations raised point to an alarming reality: police station chiefs are suspected of receiving staggering sums, up to 100,000 euros a week, in bribes from illegal call center networks that rob citizens of the European Union. In exchange for this police protection and galloping corruption, the same police unleash barbaric violence on young people simply because they gather, protest or throw eggs as a sign of dissatisfaction.
The Fear of Power and Historical Parallels
When a government defends itself with poisonous substances against its own people, the message is clear and readable: fear of a civic revolt has gripped the offices of the head of government.
What we are seeing today on the boulevards of Tirana carries the strong smell of the agony of authoritarian regimes. Edi Rama is faithfully following in the footsteps of Ramiz Alia, believing that tear gas, police violence and psychological terror can extinguish the desire for change among a people plunged into misery and systemic corruption.
But history has already proven this: no government has been able to stop the will of citizens through poisoning and intimidation. The misuse of the state uniform for the interests of criminal clans has only accelerated the inevitable end of this system.
A government steeped in corruption has only one path left, and it does not run through poisonous gas, but through accountability before the law and the citizens.