The leader of the Democratic Party (PD) opened Monday’s protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, being the first among the scheduled speakers.

Berisha began his speech by greeting those present and introducing what he called the “citizen-parliament” platform.

“The opposition’s efforts for elections and a change of power were met with tons of drug money, with the terrorist army of patronazhistë, the terrorists of the vote. We were faced with all the financial, human, and logistical resources of the mafia state, the narco-state—only to prevent rotation, the departure from power.

If we stop and look at this week alone, there is no week that more clearly shows the hateful face of the Albanian narco-state. This week saw major scandals; this week proved that this rotten structure is collapsing, disintegrating, and awaits nothing but our momentum to erase it from history.

Just this week, in what should have been the safest place, we saw a massacre where government-linked gangs eliminate other government-linked gangs. But what culminated in the actions of the narco-state was the de facto shutdown of the narco-parliament,” Berisha said.