An incident near a protest has turned into a sharp political clash after a mother said she and her son with autism were hit by pepper spray and water while returning from therapy. While Prime Minister Edi Rama blamed protesters for their presence in the area, the woman publicly stood by her account that she was not part of the gathering. In the middle of this clash, a GoFundMe campaign raised $151,000 within a few hours.
What the mother said after the incident
According to her public account after the event, the woman said she was going home after finishing her son’s therapy. She said she had not been part of the protest and that she was affected by pepper spray in her eyes and by water thrown during the tensions.
In her reaction, she said she only wanted to leave for home and described the incident as unacceptable. This version remains the core of her public testimony after the incident.
Rama accuses protesters, but the account remains disputed
A day later, Prime Minister Edi Rama gave a completely different version, accusing protesters of having brought the mother and the child on the autism spectrum near Parliament in order to use the situation politically.
The head of government’s statement came in harsh political language, but without changing the fact that the woman has publicly maintained the same position: that she was returning from her son’s therapy and not from the protest. This leaves the event in an open clash between the official political version and the testimony of the person involved.
$151,000 raised in a few hours
The story of the mother and son moved many citizens, who responded through a GoFundMe campaign. Within a few hours, according to publicly released data, $151,000 was raised.
The amount collected also shifted attention to public solidarity, at a time when the political debate was being dominated by accusations and counter-accusations.
The political reaction also spread to the opposition
Rama’s statement was also reposted by Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha, who accompanied it with the mother’s video and his own reaction.
This turned the event into an issue immediately used in the day’s political confrontation, while at the center of the debate remained the question of how a mother and her child ended up exposed to a police intervention during the tensions.
Beyond the sharp clash between the sides, the case has once again raised questions about the management of protests and about the way politics rushes to build its own narrative around vulnerable people.
As long as the versions remain contradictory, what is known is that the woman has repeated that she was returning from her son’s therapy, while the public reaction immediately took the form of financial support.