The patriot with European ideas

The patriot with European ideas
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

By Frrok Çupi

It’s sad when I say it, but I don’t think that there are any more Albanian politicians after Çun Mula, the 19th century patriot with European ideas!

What did Çun Mula of the Hoti tribe did and what are the current politicians not doing about “Albanian Europeanism”? As soon as he felt that the Ottoman Empire around us was weakening and independence was being sought by many nations around us, he went to Shkodra and raised the national flag on 16 July 1880, 21 years before Greece announced its independence.

The European ideas of the patriot in question consisted on the fact that he managed to realize that a new wind was blowing in the continent. He realized that the nations were looking to announce their independence. The European ideas of our patriot consisted on the rapid changes based on the European spirit. His European ideas consisted on the preservation of the nation, the conservative approach toward values and sovereignty…

The reason why I’m saying this is because he was “the last one”.

Whatever European wind blows over our political class, nobody here expects it. Europe is embracing conservatorism, the preservation of values, anti-federalist policies (anti-Jonturks compared to that time), preservation of national integrity and state borders… But this is not being echoed in our country. The spirit of European movement doesn’t even have any partners here. We may see the same thing that happened during the time of the patriot Çun Mula happen here, when the wave of independence was spread in the neighboring and European states, but we, Albanians, were late in embracing it. This is why I say that Çun Mula was a man of European ideas in the sense of the timing of catching up with the European movements.

Today, Europe’s conservatives have made a significant step forward: Based on all opinion polls, Austria is voting Sebastian Kurtz’s conservatives. Kurtz is only 31 years old and he leads People’s Party, a right wing conservative party. With the step that it is taking, Austria is moving right after several decades of following centrist policies. A year ago, Kurtz’s conservatives tested themselves in the presidential elections, but they conceded a narrow defeat against the social democrats. A year went by for conservatives to convince Austrians that the nation would uphold its interests by voting in favor of anti-federalism, conservatorism, protection of borders and massive anti-emigration.

However, here, within Albanian politics, there are no indications whatsoever of what is happening in Europe. The right wing is in a dilemma, it doesn’t know where to go. Wherever there’s “smell” of power, the right wing is there, to take advantage. Ahead of the 25 June elections when we expected to see clear distinctions between conservatives and liberals, between the establishment and the youth, between demagogic elites and those who change the status quo, the “rightists” of our country joined the traditional left wing government. After that day, we saw the formation of “everyone’s alliance” without conservatives. There are no longer Republicans who defend at least the right of property ownership. There are no longer Democratic Christians who would uphold family values and conservatorism. There are no longer nationalists, because the “right” wing fears nationalism…

Europeanists are not only distinguished by geography and ideology. Europeanists are distinguished by rapidness and value. Things are changing in Europe, because the wind of the conservation of nations is blowing in it.

Is this echo being heard here? If we still had “Çun Mula” or other wise patriots like him, would they have quickly realized that Europe is changing?

In France, we saw how Le Pen’s nationalist rightists won a significant number of seats in the French parliament. The Centrist Macron could not form a government without Fillon’s conservatives. In Germany, besides CDU’s conservatives, we see the Alternative for Germany win seats in the Bundestag, although this party was only formed four years ago. In Holland, Gert Wilder’s conservative nationalists, although a young party, came close to victory at the beginning of this year. In Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary…, national governments are rejecting the EU’s federalist and multi-cultural policies. In Spain, we saw a very big political gap opening up due to Catalonia voting in favor of independence. In the UK, people have voted against the EU’s Eurocrats and in favor of the nation’s values.

Why has our country remained without political “movements”? In other words, why has it remained without “internal streams”?

Political analyses sometimes blame the left wing which is “strong” thanks to the communist past of the country and sometimes on the fall of the “right wing”. Between the left’s demagogy and the right’s demagogy, voters have opted for the former, which is more original.

Between the unrealistic promises made by rightists, who are as in favor of the establishment as left wing elites, why should people vote the former? There’s no difference between these two teams, besides the names. This is the dilemma.

Rightists are not receiving any signals from the rapid changes in Europe. Even when Sebastian Kurtz wins in Austria, they back the social-democrats; even when Trump wins in America, they back George Soros.

So, the country remains without a Europeanist spectrum. The rapid conservative movements are not supported by politics, neither left, nor right wing.

Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy

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