My fellow citizens!
No elections will take place tomorrow in Albania.
Elections are the mechanism how people decide on the governance they want, but tomorrow people have no choice at all.
Elections express people’s free will.
But tomorrow there will be no freedom, and there will be no will expressed.
Elections are a constitutional and a legal mechanism, but tomorrow, the constitution and the law will be violated in an unconstitutional and deeply criminalized process.
My fellow citizens,
I know that many of you would have wanted, and were expecting that no farce voting would take place tomorrow either. That nothing would happen at all.
But the only way to achieve this, would have been through a violent way, which would have caused innocent lives to be lost, as well social wounds.
Violence wouldn’t produce neither any political results.
It could have brought only a false sense of momentary triumph, while leaving behind open wounds and unresolved problems.
I and all the Democrats, do not believe in the path of violence!
So today, I want to say to every democrat, and fellow citizen that did join our efforts :
Be proud, because we did a great service to Albania, without falling prey to the orchestrated violence by Edi Rama!
I am proud of your dignity, civility and courage!
Thanks to you, this regime has been lethally wounded and will soon collapse!
I know there many of you may think that autocrats such as Edi Rama, can only be removed by violence, that Edi Rama doesn’t understand any other language, except violence.
This opinion has been shared to me by many members and supporters of the Democratic Party. It has been shared to me by many citizens, political analysts and others.
But I do not believe that violence is the solution.
I believe our strength lies in the justice of what we seek. It stands in our perseverance, patience and courage.
No political result, or political power emerging from violence, has brought anything good to peoples and governance.
Violence produces mechanical shifts of power, without achieving deep cleaning and transformation.
Violence creates a criminal legitimacy for those who come to power through it.
I believe that violence on June 30, benefits none, except Edi Rama.
Not a single injury, not a single wound of any Albanian, is worth that.
Violence and victims are worth only for Edi Rama. He is looking for excuses. He seeks to use the pretext of his violent opponents, in order to justify the repression by his criminalized state police, in order to justify the violence, the abuses and the crimes he has committed so far.
Edi Rama’s end won’t come by clashing Albanians with each other. It won’t come by hitting, beating or hurting each other.
Edi Rama’s end is coming by rejecting him.
By forsaking him.
By isolating him.
His end is near because, above all, our efforts so far have been deeply European, profoundly principled and not driven by personal goals.
My primary responsibility and obligation, above everything else, is to serve the public interest, your interest, it is our people’s welfare. This interest comes above any party interest, above any personal interest.
Unlike Edi Rama, who, for his personal power, is ready to drive Albanians to fratricide tomorrow, I bear the responsibility for the life of every democrat, of every socialist and of every Albanian citizen.
So, regarding tomorrow I have only one call:
Don’t fall prey to the instinct of violence!
Don’t fall prey to the provocations of violence!
I urge you not to vote, to boycott!
If you are forced to go to polls due to this regime’s threats, resist! The regime is coming to an end! They can do nothing to you!
Raise up your voice in tomorrow’s protests, in the streets and squares!
Challenge this regime everywhere!
In a peaceful manner!
Tomorrow is the day to reflect our will through our union, through a dignified resistance, through determination.
And without violence!
In this bad day for Albania, our strength comes from the values we reflect, from the principles we base our acts upon!
We want to be Europeans, and we have to behave like Europeans!
Tomorrow, and every day!
Let tomorrow be a clear contrast between the violence shown by the criminal autocracy in charge of these farce voting, and the dignity of a united people that challenges this regime.
God bless you and God bless Albania!
