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"From news to messenger": Edi Rama's propaganda manual against the protest

2026-06-23 19:21:49Politikë SHKRUAR NGA BLERINA GJOKA
"From news to messenger": Edi Rama's propaganda manual against
Edi Rama

According to communications experts, Prime Minister Edi Rama has resorted to the old propaganda manual to respond to the protest, aiming to shift attention from the facts and create fog and confusion about the protesters and their goals.

Since May 31, thousands of protesters have gathered every night below the prime minister's office on "Dëshmorët e Kombit" boulevard in Tirana and chanted in chorus: "Rama, resign."

The protest was sparked by the violent episode that occurred in Zvërnec on May 30, where a protester was dragged by private guards inside a barbed wire fence in the protected area where a residential complex linked to the US president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is planned to be built, but quickly turned into an anti-establishment movement.

For three weeks, the movement now known as the "Flamingo Revolution" has been demanding not only the resignation of the prime minister, but also the cancellation of the 2024 project and legal changes for protected areas, as well as the change of the old political class dominated by the Rama-Berisha duo.

Prime Minister Edi Rama has consistently downplayed popular disillusionment with his government, trying to find “external” and “internal” enemies to incite the protests – from hostile states like Iran to local influencers. In a lengthy speech before the Socialist Party parliamentary group on Saturday, Rama explained the popular revolt by what he called the “algorithm proletariat,” while ruling out any possibility of his possible resignation.

Communications experts explain Rama's behavior towards the marathon protest with the well-known propaganda manual, which aims to evade the facts and delegitimize the protest actors.

According to Communication Sciences lecturer Artan Fuga, this is not a random choice.

"The Prime Minister and every government or every power in cases of social crises and political tensions, such as protests, is obliged to communicate and communicates in two dimensions: the political, rational dimension, where it enters into the content of the issue with arguments and dialogue, and the dimension of public relations and propaganda tools, not based on content and dialogue," explained Fuga, emphasizing that Rama chose the latter.

Fuga explains the reasons for this communication strategy with the unpredictable situation, the political culture, and the prime minister's need to deny facts that are obvious.

"The unexpected protest broke the myth that he had everything in control, and when something comes unexpectedly, it's much easier to use propaganda techniques, because each rationalization justifies the other," he emphasized.

Journalist Lutfi Dervishi also emphasizes the dramatic change in the prime minister's rhetoric, which, according to him, aims to influence "government supporters, the undecided, and the administration."

"We have a typical shift in the debate from 'what is being said' to 'who is saying it," Dervishi said, adding that when the focus shifts from the concerns raised to the identity, motives or connections of the protesters, attention shifts away from the essence of the dissatisfaction and focuses on the legitimacy of its bearers.

This, according to him, "is a well-known strategy aimed at fragmenting public support for the protest and sowing doubts about its representativeness."

According to Professor Fuga, the prime minister used at least three technical elements of propaganda aimed at shifting attention away from the essence of the protest; elements that he summarizes in the denial of reality; the caricature of the protest and its reduction – as he calls it “pelicanization”.

Propaganda was also used as a way to deny the facts.

"You can't say there's no project when the works have already started there…," Fuga adds.

While the allegations of the use of external and internal 'conspiracies' are related, according to Professor Fuga, to the attempt to seek international support.

"So saying that if there is extremism in the world against Israel, or against the world of finance, this is happening to me today. And he was victimized, he sought it as an alliance as if the Trump family was being attacked," he emphasized.

The attempt at polarization

In refusing to reflect on the protesters' demands, Prime Minister Edi Rama often uses as a defense the 83 mandates and the 'majority of Albanians' who support him and his vision for coastal tourism projects. On the other hand, he uses the classic method of public communication, not talking about the message, but about the messenger.

According to Adri Nurellari, a political communication expert, this is not a new method in Albanian politics.

"Today the repertoire has changed, but the logic remains the same. Instead of umbrellas with knives, we have 'Russian agents', 'Iranians', 'Serbs', 'Greeks', 'Marxists', 'anti-Americans', 'anti-Semites', 'anti-business' and any other label that can serve to divert attention from the issues raised," Nurellari said.

According to him, this discourse seeks to shift the energy of the debate from topics of corruption, criminalization, state capture, destruction of heritage, immigration, or other problems raised by the protesters to the question "Who are these people?" and not "Are they right?".

"From a psychological point of view, the main goal is not necessarily to convince the majority of citizens that the protesters are indeed foreign agents or extremists. It is enough to create fog, suspicion and confusion," he added.

Another interesting element of this communication manual, according to him, is the anti-rally to shift the message from 'is there a right to protest' to 'which camp are you in?'.

"This is how the narrative of two Albanias is created: our Albania against their Albania, progressives against reactionaries, the majority against the minority," says Nurellari, assessing that this is a classic polarization technique, because the more the debate develops as a clash of identities, the less is talked about the concrete issues that have produced the dissatisfaction.

While Nurellari believes that Rama is aiming to polarize society with his narrative, Fuga and Dervishi differ in their analysis.

For Lutfi Dervishi, this strategy followed by Rama has its limits in the face of a protest that continues and grows larger.

“If the protest were small, vague, or dependent on a few public figures, attacks on individuals could be effective, but when we are dealing with a broad movement, without a clear leader and with diverse participation, personal attacks often do not solve the problem perceived by the public; on the contrary, they can reinforce the belief that the government is dealing with the messenger and not the news,” he says.

The paradox, according to Dervishi, is that the longer a protest lasts without incidents and with consistent participation, the less effective the labels become, returning the debate to where it began: to the reasons for the protest, not to the identity of the protesters.

Meanwhile, Fuga says that the prime minister's propaganda narrative has given him several points, related to keeping the protest on an emotional level, neutralizing criticism of him, and maintaining a connection with his electorate.

"It is easier to maintain unity with the electorate by appealing to body language and propaganda, rather than the language of reasoning to provide arguments, which are often strained," he concluded./ BIRN


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