Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was met with eggs and loud jeers in New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly. A group of Albanian protesters had gathered near the venue hosting activities of the Albanian delegation, and as the prime minister passed by, chants rang out against him and eggs were hurled in his direction. Rama’s response came shortly afterward via social media and was characteristically sharp. The Albanian prime minister called the protesters “hysterical hens” and linked the demonstrations against him to political opposition within Albania.
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Edi Rama: the eggs and protests in New York
According to videos that circulated online, protesters waited for the Albanian prime minister during his visit to New York. As he passed by, some of those gathered threw eggs at him while loud chants and accusations rang out against him. Rama responded later with a post on social media: “To those who are wrapped in the national flag and clucking in the streets like hysterical hens, I say only this: I have raised that flag higher than ever before in the eyes of the world.”
“Mud, eggs, and nonsense won’t stop me”
Continuing his statement, the Albanian prime minister connected the reactions to his policies and Albania’s path toward the European Union. “And to those who think they can stop me with mud, eggs, and nonsense — in my mission to carry our flag to the top of the European Union — I say that if, for the first time in the history of the Albanian state, we have an institutional system that demonstrates the capacity for self-cleansing, that is a great achievement that did not fall from the sky, but came precisely as one of the historic results of this mission,” he wrote pointedly. Rama also referred to the fight against corruption and argued that Albania has changed significantly in recent years. “In a country that was drowning in the swamp of corruption (…) I, with my party, turned the wheel of justice toward equality for all,” he added.
References to the EU and the United States
The Albanian prime minister also argued that “today Albania is no longer that country, and that is why the European Union and the United States increasingly value Albania for this fight.” He concluded his statement with yet another pointed jab at the protesters and his political opponents: “Meanwhile, the hysterical hens of our village cluck and throw eggs in the air on behalf of the roosters of the political and media market, whose minds are as small as an egg, thinking they can stop me with endless accusations about the very corruption that the system we are building is fighting against.”
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