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OPINEWS

The violent return of the copycat Ervin Demo

Politiko 2026-10-14 15:46:46
The violent return of the copycat Ervin Demo

Vincent Yusiu Van Gerven Oei / The Albanian Mechanism

Once again, Albania's student population finds itself facing a figure who embodies the utter mediocrity of the Albanian ruling class and the collapse of the education system: Interior Minister Ervin Demo. And this time, the confrontation is anything but peaceful.

In December 2018, Albanian students held what were, until then, the largest protests since the fall of the communist regime in 1991, against the Rama government and the deplorable state of underfunding of the public education system. One of the symbols of the corruption that had flourished under the leadership of then-Minister of Education Lindita Nikolla — someone without academic credentials, whose only achievement was favoring the textbook publishing house where she had previously worked — was then-Deputy Minister of Education Ervin Demo.

As it turned out, Demo — along with a number of other senior ruling party officials — had plagiarized his academic papers. This, of course, should immediately disqualify anyone from holding a government position overseeing higher education, and indeed, Demo was ultimately dismissed in February 2019 to meet the students’ demands, only to be appointed mayor of Berat. Most recently, in September, he was promoted to the post of interior minister and, as such, became responsible for the police force.

Since Demos’ appointment, scandal after scandal has engulfed the State Police. As part of a wide-ranging corruption investigation, the Special Structure Against Corruption and Organized Crime (SPAK) seized the mobile phone of Ardi Veliu, former Director General of the State Police and current administrator of the state-owned security company KAYO, in connection with the criminal affairs of Israeli fraudster Ron Yeffet, while a senior police official from Elbasan, Ulian Shpataraku, recently emerged as the driver of Albania’s most wanted middleman, Ergys Agasi. From every corruption or organized crime case in recent years, it is clear that the police force has been thoroughly compromised , testifying to the close relations and coordination between Demos’ ministry and the mafia.

And now, the disgraced former Deputy Minister of Education and plagiarist Demo has unleashed this fully compromised, structured criminal organization against the new generation of the student movement that caused his downfall eight years ago.

But just as the student movement is filled with new energy to challenge the government's ongoing neglect of the education system and to align its demands with those of the broader anti-government movement, the police have also been able to improve their capabilities through TOMA water cannon vehicles purchased from Turkey, as well as weapons and "crowd control" training, no doubt facilitated by the increasingly close relations between the Albanian regime and Israel.

The violence perpetrated by the police under the leadership of Demos has been shocking. Over the past 24 hours, social media has been flooded with images of rampant police violence against young Albanians: gang beatings, broken limbs, complete disregard for medical aid — an interesting fact: the ambulances are owned by Yeffet’s Timak company — and the excessive use of tear gas and water cannons from the moment the students gathered to protest; which, after all, is their human right.

Demos’ response to all this has been empty and not worth repeating or translating: vague pseudo-Eurocratic babble about monitoring the situation, while the completely criminalized police force, which is his responsibility, freely unloads its fears and frustrations on Albanian youth. This is plagiarized violence: violence without purpose or function, without rhyme or reason, without strategy or purpose — patched together with pieces taken from Erdoğan and Netanyahu, but even more pathetic and impotent.

Students understand this: when the state responds like a wild animal, it is clear that it has been cornered. Now the important thing is to stand firm in our positions and not give up an inch. They will run out of water, they will run out of stun grenades and, of course, their morale; but the demands of the protesters will remain for another day, because they are universal: the right to education and to a dignified life in the country where you were born.

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