By Çim Peka

The protest chants targeting Sali Berisha have struck many observers as jarring. That left-leaning media outlets — unable to mount a credible defense of Prime Minister Edi Rama — have seized upon his adversary as an additional target is, if nothing else, understandable. The crowd filling Albania’s squares is as diverse as the grievances it carries. To identify who is truly behind the slogans ‘Berisha is sold to Rama’ or ‘Rama to prison, Berisha to prison,’ one need only arrive early at the demonstration and look for those with colored armbands, setting themselves apart from the broader gathering.

The slogans of the neo-Marxist circles clustered around the ‘New Albania Film Studio’ milieu bear a striking resemblance to the accusations once leveled at Ibrahim Rugova during and immediately after the Kosovo war — the charge that he was a collaborator, sold out to Slobodan Milošević. Rugova was, in fact, a prisoner of the Serbian autocrat. Berisha, in turn, was imprisoned by Albania’s own strongman. Rugova emerged from captivity, returned to Pristina as a liberator, and went on to win elections against the very men who had called him a traitor. The parallel is not incidental; it is instructive.

While the neo-Marxist circles of Tirana were sustained by the grants of left-leaning foundations, Sali Berisha was serving a prison sentence at the order of Edi Rama. His return to political life, his imprisonment, and the sustained opposition protests that followed are, in large measure, the very preconditions that have made today’s demonstrations possible. His resistance placed a brake — however imperfect — on Rama’s consolidation of power. It exhausted and wore down the regime. Without that sacrifice, and without the sacrifice of thousands of Democrats who stood beside him, no one would be in the streets today.

“Kosovo became independent because for twenty years Rugova kept the spirit of resistance alive. Albanians have taken the squares today because Sali Berisha absorbed every blow and kept that spirit alive.”

Today, the square belongs to everyone: the unaffiliated, the Democrats, the exhausted Socialists, the neo-Marxists. Kosovo gained independence because for two decades Rugova kept the flame of resistance burning. Albanians have seized their public squares today because Sali Berisha absorbed every blow and kept that same flame alive.

This remarkable movement was not called into being by the Democrats — but it would not exist without them. Every day, more Albanians join it: not only those who have remained in the country, but compatriots from across the world, lending it a grandeur that grows by the hour. But on the day when Democrats pour in from every corner of Albania — the parents of many of the young people who have given such life and color to these protests — the character of what is happening will become something altogether different.

Tomorrow will be a new day. And then, perhaps, the pelican-brandishing neo-Marxists will finally understand what a public square truly is — and what genuine opposition looks like.

Cim Peka is a political commentator and journalist.