The day after the elections!

The day after the elections!
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

By Alfred Peza

June 25, which was last Sunday, brought many interesting developments in the election process and some of these developments will dictate political developments in the next four years and some others will have a longer effect in the Albanian political arena. Let’s try and analyze the three most important ones below.

First of all, the final and official result of these elections showed that the Socialist Party is the most organized political force, the most efficient one and it’s the one political force which is several steps in front as opposed to all other social groups in today’s Albania, in every aspect. It has gone much further than all other political parties, especially in the organizational aspect, thus transforming the Socialist Party into an almost perfect electoral machine, without other rivals in the Albanian political arena. This party has turned the culture of long-term planning as a team into a way of living, with the aim of delivering the objectives of its political project. Among many other elements, today, the Socialist Party is one of the few parties in the region, which, from a traditional way of organizing things, today, it organizes them in a totally modern way in a closed circle and based on digital technologies. In other words, moving from one way of organization to another, for a political party may be reflected in the difference that exists in sound and image between black and white TVs and color TVs that today broadcast in HD. All of this in stark contrast to other political parties, which continue to be victims of the inertia of transition, due to the culture of improvisation, which has been deeply rooted as part of a general social culture and this way, leaving their electoral result in the hands of the work that is done in times of campaign to some poorly organized teams, with people who have been occupying some offices for the past 27 years in the same way former communist agricultural cooperatives used to be occupied and people who have remained behind the rest of society, a society whose vote they want to govern it. These parties still continue with the mentality and the hope that the noise and the dust of those days of the campaign will manage to cover and fill out all the flaws and organizational gaps that exist in between two elections.

The conclusion: This modernity, this new western culture of work and this philosophy of the way the Socialist Party functions, has started during the first term in office and is also expected to continue during this term, in order to be fully and completely implemented and injected in all levels of the government, administration and institution of the state. The perfection of the system is the only way that can help us to leave behind the historical primitivism of the past, to move rapidly toward our European future. Because, at the end of the day, in a way or another, among others, governing is a reflection of the internal administration and governance that exists within parties that win the elections. Meanwhile, as far as the parties that were defeated on Sunday are concerned, I believe that time has come for them to be reorganized and undergo deep reformations in order to adapt to new challenges of the Albanian societies after 2021, when the next elections take place, in order for them to turn from obsolete machinery to efficient systems of competitive races, in front of the socialist machinery.

Secondly, this race showed that the power of example and not the example of power is the winning philosophy that Albanian people want to see in their parties and in their leaders. Since the time of Genghis Khan, the world is governed through two philosophies, regardless of the regimes and the governments that come and go: Either with the force of the morale or with the morale of the force. Although the first term in office was not perfect, mostly due to the allies, Albanians saw in the Socialist Party and Edi Rama a real effort, an extraordinary determination to approve and implement deep reforms which aimed at consolidating a modern state, which will help us leave many major problems of the past behind, by offering hope to people, that one day, even this country can become a nice country to live in. At least, it will initially be a normal state for everyone. With a functional system, which will enable a governance style and a way of exerting power which is delivered with more justice, security and assurances for the citizens. With more hope, work and wellbeing for them. It seems that Albanian voters saw elements, sparkles and clear signs of this in the Socialist Party. This is without any doubt one of the reasons why for the first time in these 27 years, a party, which remained four years in power, obtained more votes and more seats in the new parliament than in the 2013 elections and its first term in office. This almost shatters a political myth, not only in Albania, but all over the democratic world, where it rarely happens that a party which is assumed that it will lose votes in four years of being in office, increases the number of votes that it obtains and receives a bigger support than before. This can only happen when people see tangible proof, concrete examples and concrete efforts in a party and its leadership. When they see the projection of what they expect their government to bring them, in order for them to vote that government for another four years. It is also a clear proof that Albanian people never vote blindly. On the contrary, they are very intelligent voters, something which they have shown in all electoral processes held after 1990 in Albania. It was very clear that the parties that were on the losing side, not only did they not manage to damage the result and the image of the Socialist Party and its leader, Rama through their propaganda, but on the other hand, it was also quite clear that they didn’t offer any project, program, alternative or hope for a political and government platform, which would be better and compete the one offered by socialists.

Thirdly, the result that defeated parties obtained showed that they and their leaders are in deep crises of ideas and reformism, because they continue to request votes for the future, in spite of all the flaws of the system and our past political class, in spite of the fact that their organizational style belongs to the past, in spite of the fact that their accusations belong to the past, their projects belong to the past, their vocabulary belongs to the past, their leaders belong to the past, their teams belong to the past, their culture, mentality and approach belong to the past. Forgetting that voters who voted for the first time on 25 June were born in 1999, ten years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. They forgot that having a population among the youngest in Europe, the majority of our voters were either not born or were very little when the system changed. And that today, they are sons of freedom and product of an open Albania, who, for many years have earned the right of free movement, the right of education and employment in the west and elsewhere, thus becoming more and more citizens of the world. As a result, belonging to the future, they refuse to be governed by the past. By the past as a mentality, philosophy, culture, offer, project, approach, form and content. This must be the starting point of the analysis of the losers and their leaders in those parties that were punished by the vote of the people, in order to understand the causes and work in order to remedy the consequences. Being the biggest losing party, the Democratic Party has felt more than any other the weight of this defeat. This is the reason why it has started a new process of elections in the party. In spite of the debates taking place like never before in this party, I fear that it will not go to the root of its problems. The same thing must also happen with the Socialist Movement for Integration, which didn’t manage to become the largest political force in the country. Then, this process must continue with other parliamentary parties and the last parties that were involved in the process. Many leaders and party chairmen lost not only as parties, but also as individuals. Once the elections are over, everyone is tired. Some as a result of the victory, but many are tired as a result of the defeat. The following day, everyone starts to think of the future, which is projected and starts to be built today.

The republication of this article is strictly forbidden without a written permission from the Albanian Free Press newsroom

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

Shpërndajeni me miqtë tuaj: