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The rhetorical similarities between Goebbels and Erion Veliaj

2026-05-22 10:59:00, Aktualitet CNA

The rhetorical similarities between Goebbels and Erion Veliaj

There are moments when modern politics brings to mind the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, through their propaganda techniques.

Albania is certainly not Nazi Germany, however, the way public communication is constructed, how perception is managed, and how critics are treated, creates strong methodological similarities with the classic manual of modern propaganda.

Goebbels, the Reich's propaganda minister, understood propaganda not as rational debate, but as an emotional instrument of domination. He said , "Propaganda must appeal to feelings rather than intellect ." So, propaganda does not aim to convince through argument, but through emotion, identification, and repetition.

The rhetorical similarities between Goebbels and Erion Veliaj
Joseph Goebbels

This is where the similarity with the way Erion Veliaj has been building his public image for years begins. Erion Veliaj's communication is rarely built on technical or institutional debate. Instead, he relies on emotional videos, children, trees, artists, music, optimistic chronicles and the constant aestheticization of the political figure.

Even in the face of current serious corruption allegations, the public narrative remains largely unchanged: inaugurations, smiles, colors, optimism, and motivational slogans. This is reminiscent of the propaganda method that creates a “parallel reality” where perception matters more than the crisis itself.

Goebbels openly expressed the logic of this method. “It is not propaganda's task to be intelligent; its task is to lead to success.”

So, the goal is not truth or analysis, but political effect.

In this spirit, Veliaj has consistently used simple and emotionally strong slogans: "Work, not talk", "We plant trees, they plant mud", "Tirana that doesn't stop", "Transformation", "Positivity".

These slogans are repeated obsessively in interviews, social networks, and government-run media. This was precisely one of the pillars of Goebbels' propaganda; reducing reality to a few simple messages that are repeated until they become collective perception.

Even the famous saying associated with his propaganda method , "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth," despite debates over the exact wording, sums up the philosophy of that propaganda.

Another strong similarity is the way critics are treated. Goebbels did not present opponents as people with arguments, but as saboteurs, evil people or enemies of the people. In his propaganda, the critic was delegitimized before the debate began.

The same rhetorical technique is often observed in Erion Veliaj. Instead of confronting the essence of the corruption accusations, attention is shifted to "politically motivated prosecutors", "paid media", "those who hate Tirana" or "those who want to stop the work".

So, the debate no longer focuses on the question: "are the allegations true?", but on "who is attacking?" and "what are their motives?".

This is a classic propaganda technique. Do everything you can to destroy the credibility of the critic and avoid confronting the substance.

Equally significant is the tendency to identify the political figure with the city itself or progress. Nazi propaganda presented the regime as the embodiment of Germany and any criticism of it as an attack on the nation.

In a much more modern and non-totalitarian way, even in Erion Veliaj's rhetoric, the idea that attacks on him are attacks on the transformation of Tirana or on the work done is often present. This creates an extreme personalization of politics, the leader and the public project becoming one.

Essentially, the similarity lies not in the ideology or regime, but in the mechanism that is based on emotional propaganda, sloganization, mass repetition, narrative control, delegitimization of critics, and management of public perception.

These are techniques that Goebbels systematized in the most brutal form and that today appear in modern, more sophisticated and media-driven versions, even in formal democracies. Precisely for this reason, many people, when they hear Erion Veliaj's public rhetoric, may remember a regime, but they especially remember his propaganda method. /CNA





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