Ervin Demo appears to have discovered a new talent today: speaking about violence against the police without mentioning police violence.
In the middle of a Tirana filled with tear gas, water cannons, detained students and footage of harsh interventions by the blue uniforms, Edi Rama’s interior minister came out with a statement that could just as easily have been written by some foreign embassy.
“Contribute to lowering tensions,” the minister tells us.
But who is supposed to lower tensions, Mr. Demo? The protesting students or the institution for which you bear political responsibility and oversight?
In his statement, the minister found space for the six injured police officers, for their families, for solidarity and for full support.
For the injured students, not a word.
Not about the footage of police officers striking protesters. Not about the use of force. Not about reviewing the actions of the blue uniforms.
For the minister, the blood of police officers deserves a statement. The blood of students does not deserve even a sentence.
Meanwhile, public debate is shifting with extraordinary ease toward the shattered windows of the Ministry of Education.
The windows!
As if that were Albania’s biggest problem.
As if a broken pane were worth more than the question of whether a citizen was unjustly struck by the police officer paid with his own taxes.
A public building can be repaired. A window can be replaced. But the state’s responsibility toward its own citizens cannot be hidden behind the bill for broken glass.
And this is where the hypocrisy of Demo’s statement lies.
The minister condemns the assault on police officers, but does not even undertake to call for an investigation into claims of excessive police violence.
He speaks of professionalism while citizens watch footage of interventions in the streets.
He speaks of restraint, but does not explain where that restraint was in the reported cases of protesters being struck.
He speaks of the right to protest, but does not say what he will do to guarantee that this right is not violated by the very institution he politically oversees.
Ervin Demo is not the OSCE ambassador. He is not a mediator between students and the police. He is the interior minister.
And a minister cannot hide behind fine words about calm when the questions demand concrete answers.
Who gave the orders for the use of force? Was it proportionate? Will the cases documented on video be investigated? Will there be accountability for every overstepping of authority?
These are the questions the minister must answer.
Not recite peace statements to us as if he were following events from another continent.
Because democracy is not measured by the number of windows left intact after a protest. It is also measured by the way the state treats its citizens when they stand up to power.
And if a minister can find words only for the wounds of one side, his silence about the other side becomes a political issue in itself.
Rama’s Demo may continue to speak like a diplomat. But today, citizens are owed an answer from him as a minister.
Because the windows of the Ministry of Education can be replaced as soon as tomorrow.
Trust in a state that is supposed to protect the citizen even when that citizen protests against it is far harder to restore.