In confronting an unprecedented wave of anti-government protests, Albania’s prime minister is trying to discredit those taking part and deflect attention from their legitimate grievances. The strategy may yet backfire.
Blerina Gjoka
Addressing MPs from his ruling Socialist Party this month, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama lamented what he described as the 21st century’s “algorithmic proletariat”.
Those protesting on the streets of Tirana, he argued, represent a new social class, united not by labour but by attention, not by industry but by screens and consumption.
“Protests do not take place only in the square,” he said. “The square is simply… the place where material is filmed to feed the algorithm.”
“The more visibility, the more influence, the more influence, the more power over the slaves of the algorithms – over all of us.”
His remarks epitomised the communications strategy adopted by Albania’s embattled leader since protests broke out several weeks ago over a planned tourist development linked to Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – a strategy that boils down to ‘discredit and deflect’.
