Berisha: We must return to the square every night, and Edi Rama will flee like a mouse. The December 22 protest resonated worldwide

Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha has called for the intensification of protests and a daily return to the public square, declaring that only sustained, peaceful, and mass resistance can remove Prime Minister Edi Rama from power.

Speaking from the podium in Manzë, Berisha said the December 22 protest had an extraordinary international impact and that the opposition has launched a democratic battle, first in Parliament and then on the streets, with the aim of overthrowing what he described as an illegitimate regime.

BERISHA: We have begun our battle.We began it in Parliament. And I assure you, first and foremost, that you have a genuine opposition, and that is extremely important. We started in Parliament, we invited you to fill the square and the streets.

Second, we are not a party of violence. I understand that some of you rightly feel that these people deserve a beating, and more than that. They deserve the stick, and more than the stick. They deserve it. But we are still not that party.

Let me give you two examples so that we do not lose patience. We win, and we have won, through peaceful resistance. How did we overthrow them in 1991? Were weapons not seized everywhere against us, do you remember? When Enver Hoxha’s statue fell, we did not take up arms. No. But we did erect barricades.

We blocked the roads. When they came down with tanks from the Shkolla e Bashkuar in September, they found the streets blocked by barricades. But we did not take up arms. And we won.

In 1997, did they not come with rebellion, violence and weapons? We drove them out with the vote. And now we will drive them out again. That is our mission, with the greatest determination.

We are a democratic force; we are a democratic opposition. We will use every democratic, non-violent means to remove them. They cannot withstand it.

Look at our history. Even when our people were killed, we still forced them out of the prime minister’s office, some used force, others did not. But our history is a history of peaceful overthrows.

We removed them in 2005 through the vote. Now Edi Rama believes he can steal from citizens and remain entrenched where he is. Absolutely not. Let him find a mouse hole to crawl into.

You saw the global resonance of the parliamentary resistance by our MPs and of the December 22 protest. Extraordinary. It was a battle we won on the plane of justice.

Now we must commit: on the set day, we take the square, and we return to the square every night until we remove him. We must not think the path is violence, no.

The path is our resistance, the squares. The square must be ours, and Edi Rama will flee like a mouse. He cannot remain there.

So we enter 2026 with a mission, like missionaries, like the fortunate ones who have the opportunity to overthrow a second dictatorship in Albania.

I am convinced that the opposition’s people, the people of Manzë, of Durrës, and of all Albania, will rise to the height of this mission: the salvation of Albania, the salvation of the opposition, the salvation of the Albanian nation, which is sliding in the worst possible way.

Once again, happy holidays, and to the greatness of our mission.

In January, we begin our battle, until victory.