This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al
In the recent months, there’s been an interesting metamorphosis of the opposition’s approach, in an effort to include the international community in the fight to defeat the majority in parliament and come back to power. This is both a serious and a ridiculous curve. It’s a path both naïve and diabolical. It’s an effort which needs to be praised, but one which also offers great entertainment. It may be even considered as a cause which deserves to be studied by political experts, because it is a spectacular example of how a leadership, a political party or a political group must not act in an attempt, nonetheless commendable, to attain its goals, because everything goes against the legitimacy of the system, the normal rules of a political game and the way democracy and the democratic world functions.
But let us explain in a simple and chronological way what has happened. I believe that everyone who has followed the political developments in the country, remembers how a few months ago, the presidential race in the US between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, was almost reflected on the Albanian media as a race between SP and DP, between Edi Rama and Sali Berisha and Lulzim Basha. This didn’t look like a race between left wing and right wing in America, but as a clash for life and death between the Albanian left and right wing. I believe that we all remember the beginning of last November, when the victory of President Trump was experienced by democrats in Tirana with a greater joy than his own Republican staff in Washington. Right wing media in Albania raised champagne glasses and compared Trump’s entry in the Oval office with Rama leaving his office in Tirana.
This was the moment when our opposition’s emissaries started to make moves in both sides of the ocean in order to tie the disconnected threads with the center of global diplomacy. They dreamt that they had finally found again the magic wand of Harry Potter, which would defeat Edi Rama. This was enough for the US President not only to be declared honorable citizen, but also to name a street like him in Kamza. Meanwhile, a propaganda campaign had started for those who dreamt of a new political era in the “Putin” global policy, which was expected to bring a total change of the USA’s diplomatic path in Europe and the Balkans and as a result, in Albania too. This would be accompanied with the domino effect which was expected to be caused by the referendum in favor of Brexit, which in turn lead to Great Britain’s divorce with the EU, with the growth of populism in France, problems with democratic standards in Macedonia, Hungary, Turkey and elsewhere.
Besides this, a campaign was launched in several other countries against Soros and those who were considered as “Sorosians”, with the hope that this would motivate Trump even more in fighting the “disciples” of his philanthropic nemesis in the governments of former communist countries of Eastern Europe. We must also recall a campaign against the US ambassador and the EU ambassador to Tirana, who had led the efforts of the international community in approving unanimously the reform in the judicial system. Besides this, all the old and young mechanisms of lobbying in Washington and Brussels were set in motion, in order to glorify a phenomenon which has been recently dominating the world of information: Fake News. This was an atmosphere that accompanied the protest of 18 February and the first few days of the opposition’s tent in the central boulevard in Tirana, with the hope of combining domestic pressure with international pressure into forcing the majority to accept the conditions imposed by the opposition for the creation of a technocrat government in order to win the 18 June elections and come back into power.
But as everyone thought that they were closer than ever to achieving their objective, people realized that there was something wrong in all of this. First of all, people realized that American policies toward Europe, Balkans and even less toward Albania, do not change based on the desire of our local politicians or the viewpoints of the American presidential candidates manifested during the electoral campaign. These approaches are strategic and long-term and are not subject to conjectures.
Secondly, to pretend that the US president’s priority is to solve the problems of an Albanian political leader as soon as he takes office, is naïve. It is ridiculous to think that this little “village” of ours called the Balkans, is the center of the World.
Thirdly, to try and solve a specific problem of a transitional political process in Albania by using global conjectures, not only means that you’re lying yourself, but above all, you’re feeding your supporters and voters with inexistent illusions.
Europe’s and America’s official stances, but also the stance of other international players interested for the developments in Albania have been clear and simple for the opposition: Go to Parliament, approve the implementation of the judicial reform and participate in the 18 June elections, in order to come back to power through the vote of the Albanian citizens.
When everyone realized that this was a non negotiable stance, the moment of big disappointment came. This forced the leader, who produced this illusive approach, to change his course, by not blaming himself, but the others, as he always does. This was clear when he declared from the Tent that “the money of Albanian drugs pays European and American lobbyists, who serve the interests of organized crime and the most corrupt government in Europe, with the aim of stealing from the pockets of the poorest people in Europe”.
This is enough to understand that there exists no real cause, regardless of how capable you are to sell your problem as a national problem, because since humanity was born, it has always been said that if something is born out of nothing, it will turn into nothing. And on the other hand, despite the support that you may get from the international community, one thing is clear: they are not decisive in fulfilling your dream for the Prime Minister’s post. This is decided only by the vote of the Albanian citizens. If you get the approval of the people on 18 June and the support of the international community, then this is like a dream that comes true.
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Note: The stances expressed in the Opinion section do not necessarily represent the editorial line of Albanian Free Press
