Civil society organized a protest to oppose the increase of prices in Albania on the boulevard “Dëshmorët e Kombit” in front of the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
The protest was joined by citizens of Tirana, who with placards in their hands rejected the increase of the prices of bread, ‘foods of the basket’ and fuel.
Civil society activist Adriatik Lapaj said that “this country needs to hear without embellishment the truth of its people as it is. The only way to solve Albania’s problems is that citizens should protest opposing price increases.”
The protest was joined by the well-known comedian, Florjan Binaj, who stressed that “we are all here for the inequality caused to the citizens because we always pay for every mistake made by the government”.
During the protest, Panoko Soko took the floor, accusing the government of keeping the poor people under control, while they themselves are getting richer every day.
“They (politicians) do not know the situation as as they have never gone to the store to see the prices. Everything is done to keep the poor people suppressed because that is how they control them. That is why we must stand together in front of it,” said Soko.
Adriatik Lapaj also said during the protest that the people should say “No” to the price increase. “Our problems can only be solved by making a barricade, saying no to the increase in the price of electricity,” said Lapaj.
The protest was peaceful without incidents. Wednesday’s protest had been announced earlier, while the opposition also called for joining this protest.
In the meantime the US Embassy in Tirana called on American citizens for caution and to avoid the area of the gathering.
The Embassy described this protest as organized by the Democratic Party (DP) in its first announcement but after the denial of this news by the DP headquarters, the US Embassy changed it. / Argumentum.al
