Protest as a mirror, alibi and alarm

2026-04-19 21:32:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

Protest is a legitimate right. It is one of the few mechanisms that citizens have left when institutions become deaf and politics distances itself from citizens. A society that protests is not a problem, it is a sign of life and health. It is a sign that there is still a living civic nerve that refuses to accept injustice, corruption, arrogance or failure. It is the oxygen of a society that refuses to suffocate in silence. A society that protests shows that it has not yet surrendered its dignity.

The problem does not lie in the protest. The problem is when the protest remains only for the party and cannot become for society. Because not every protest is a sign of strength. There are also protests that are simply proof of the weakness of the one who calls them.

When a party calls for protest, but society chooses not to follow it. When the citizen sees the call, hears the noise, but does not see himself there. This is no longer a matter of mobilization. It is a matter of trust.
This is the problem. Not why people do not protest, but why they do not protest for you.

A party that protests without society behind it is not leading, nor inspiring, and, despite managing to bring out a few hundred or thousands of people once a month, is talking to itself. And in politics, monologue is always a sign of isolation.

The Albanian citizen is not as apathetic as they want to sell him. He knows very well to take to the streets when he feels that there is a cause that belongs to him. But he does not come out for a party that has lost all credibility and now seeks to breathe artificially with protests.

This is why protests need to be seen more deeply than the number of participants or the rhetoric of leaders. They are also a silent test: is there still a connection between parties and people? Is the protest a genuine voice of civic discontent, or just another performance for political consumption?

It's easy to call the people. It's hard to convince them.
And when you can't convince them, the victimization begins: "they hindered us", "they sabotaged us", "people are scared". No! People are tired of the same face that demands trust without giving any reason to deserve it.

However, one thing must be said unequivocally: protesters deserve respect. Always.
Whether they are convinced militants who follow their party faithfully.
Whether they are deceived by unfulfilled promises.
Whether they are naive who hope for more than they should.

They are there. They come out. They don't choose the comfort of home or the coffee shop, they choose protest. And that is an act that takes courage.

The greatest irony is that often those who protest end up being the most used of all. Politics calls them up, uses them as a crowd, as numbers, as pressure, and very quickly forgets them.
While those who don't come out, remain spectators, critics, distanced, often emerge more rational, but also more powerless.

Thus the paradox is created: A society that protests but does not believe and a politics that calls but does not convince.
And this is the essence: lack of credibility, not lack of protest.
When a society does not join a party's protest, it has not become apolitical. It has simply chosen to no longer trust the one who calls it.

And this is much more serious than any empty square. It shows that when people don't follow you, it's not because they don't want to protest.

They just don't want to protest for you.