Edi Rama’s meeting in Berat on the issue of territorial division was marked by tensions and the removal of citizens from the hall, after an intervention by actress Egla Ceno was followed, according to her account, by the prime minister’s request that she leave.
Clash in the hall during the hearing
A delegation of citizens from Poliçan was attending the meeting, having come to express its position on the territorial issue. Among them was actress Egla Ceno.
According to Ceno, citizens were initially given the floor, but only two people spoke. After that, the discussion was taken over by the prime minister, while attempts at responses from the hall, she says, were not allowed to proceed normally.
Egla Ceno’s account
Ceno says she intervened near the end of the meeting only to ask that citizens be heard. According to her, the question she raised was direct: whether they would be given the opportunity to speak.
In the version she has given publicly, Rama’s response was “Get out,” and the argument escalated immediately after that exchange.
The meeting was interrupted and citizens left the hall
According to Ceno, the prime minister became irritated and asked for the meeting to be interrupted until she had left the hall. After that moment, she says, other members of the community also decided to leave with her.
This episode once again raises questions about the way so-called public hearings are conducted, when citizens claim they have been invited to be heard but end up clashing with those in power.
Claim of no provocation
Ceno has insisted that there was no provocation from the group’s side and that their only request was to speak. According to her, the representatives from Poliçan had come precisely to make their voices heard on an issue that directly affects them.
At this stage, the public version of the incident is based on the statements made by the actress after the meeting.
The incident in Berat shifts attention from the substance of the debate on territorial division to the way public debate itself is managed, especially when citizens try to intervene beyond a predetermined script.
When a hearing turns into orders to get out, the claim of consultation remains open to question.