Troll of the Month: Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania

The Balkan Troll of the Month is an individual, a group of individuals or a media outlet that spreads hate based on gender, ethnicity, religion, or other diversity categories. The Balkan Troll is selected based on hate speech incidents identified across the Western Balkan region.

Escalating political tensions in Albania marked this month as anti-corruption and environmental protests continued to draw thousands of citizens into the streets. Protesters raised concerns over corruption, governance, economic hardship, and controversial government-backed development projects, particularly those affecting the environmentally sensitive Zvërnec area and the nearby Narta Lagoon. Civil society organisations, environmental activists, and an increasing number of bloggers, influencers, and digital creators joined the campaign, using social media to raise awareness and mobilise public support.

Rather than engaging with the protesters concerns, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama responded with a series of public speeches, podcast appearances, and social media posts that consistently shifted attention away from the issues themselves and toward attacking the people who raised them. Throughout the month, his communication relied on ridicule, insults, dehumanising language, and personal attacks aimed at undermining the credibility and legitimacy of both protesters and those supporting them online.

One of the clearest targets of Rama’s rhetoric were influencers and bloggers who publicly backed the environmental movement. Instead of addressing allegations of environmental degradation, lack of transparency, or corruption surrounding the proposed development projects, Rama portrayed online creators as opportunists exploiting public causes for personal profit. He accused them, without evidence, of avoiding taxes while making money from their content, dismissing them as morally dishonest rather than engaging with the substance of their criticism.

His attacks became particularly hostile toward women influencers. Rama repeatedly commented on their appearance, mocked their work, and used sexualised remarks that had little to do with the environmental debate. References to bikini photos, women’s bodies, and suggestive jokes objectified female critics while reinforcing misogynistic stereotypes. He also publicly ridiculed influencers by mimicking them during speeches and making sarcastic remarks about their promotional work, turning political disagreement into public humiliation. These comments were widely shared through television broadcasts, news portals, and clips on social media, significantly amplifying their reach.

At the same time, Rama adopted similarly aggressive rhetoric toward participants in the broader anti-government protests. Instead of responding to public concerns about governance and corruption, he described protesters as hajvanë (stupid people or animals), accused them of having a “fascist mentality” and compared them to Nazis and extremist movements such as Greece’s Golden Dawn. By framing dissent as dangerous, irrational, and anti-democratic, he recast political opponents as enemies rather than citizens exercising their democratic right to protest.

The Prime Minister also blamed demonstrations for harming Albania’s tourism industry and broader economy, arguing that protests had led to cancelled reservations and damaged the country’s image. Across his public messaging, he repeatedly suggested that protesters were manipulated, driven by hidden interests, or motivated by personal gain instead of genuine civic concerns. In Facebook posts throughout the month, this narrative became even more pronounced, with protesters described using dehumanising labels such as “reptiles,” “crows,” “a race of pigs,” and “socio-political waste.” He further alleged that protest movements were coordinated through foreign influence, digital manipulation, and “algorithms of hatred,” while singling out individuals with personal accusations and derogatory labels.

Taken together, these statements reveal a consistent communication strategy. Rather than responding to criticism with evidence or policy arguments, the Prime Minister repeatedly sought to delegitimise critics by attacking their character, motives, intelligence, and identity. Environmental activists were portrayed as attention seekers, influencers as immoral profiteers, and protesters as extremists, enemies of the public interest and even animals.

This pattern of rhetoric is particularly harmful because it shifts public debate away from substantive issues such as environmental protection, corruption, governance, and economic concerns, and toward personal attacks and polarisation. The repeated use of misogynistic language, dehumanising labels, and unsubstantiated accusations normalises hostility toward civic activists and discourages public participation in democratic processes. Coming from the country’s highest political office, such discourse carries particular weight. It reinforces social divisions, legitimises harassment of critics, and contributes to an increasingly hostile environment in which dissent is portrayed not as a legitimate democratic right, but as something shameful, dangerous, or fundamentally illegitimate.