They can be easily considered as “missing terms” of this election campaign, as they have been mentioned almost at all in the speeches of political leaders. The question here relates to several concepts, which do not occupy any place in the confrontation of the political leaders with the voters, before the 25 June 2017 elections. If we recall previous campaigns, these campaigns were not only at the focus of the speeches delivered by political leaders, but they often decided the fate of the polls and shifted support from one political party to the other. Such example was the integration of Albania in the European Union, a card that was often played a few years ago by domestic politics, especially before the lifting of the visa regime with the EU member countries.
This process acted as a concrete measure for the Albanian population to understand what really EU integration was. But during this campaign, this hasn’t been at the focus of the political class, besides some accidental phrases mentioned as part of the routine speeches that political representatives have delivered. Perhaps, this also relates to the fact that the concept of integration has been misused by politics throughout the years while, on one side it has served this argument so much to the people and on the other, it was the political class the one to damage its progress with its ups and downs.
On the other hand, what we have noticed in this election campaign is also the lack of detailed analysis of social issues as such, which have also served as a strong “weapon” in the hands of politicians not only to be used for the election campaign, but also to win the elections.
We may recall the fact that besides mentioning how social allowance has been divided up until today, political leaders have not conducted an analysis of the problems that concern people in need such as disabled people (for whom a lot was talked and was promised in the last campaign), or even categories such as the Roma community or Egyptians, etc. Meanwhile, the issue of minorities is only mentioned by politics when they meet voters in the villages of Dropull and Saranda and that is it. Issues regarding pensions have also been mentioned incidentally, through symbolic figures as to how much they will increase, but without unveiling any detailed plan how they will enable such thing and no concrete measures how to help the elderly in the next four years. Even for youth, which has been mentioned so much in the speeches delivered by politicians in this campaign, politicians have not offered any detailed strategies as to how it can be helped and how thousands of new jobs will be opened up.
COMPLAINTS
“70% of political parties have avoided environment issues”
A few days ago, environmental organizations in the country have publicly raised a concern that according to them, political parties have not addressed environmental issues during this election campaign.
“They must reflect on how economic development will be achieved. But, to destroy the country’s richness, to cause great pollution, to create environmental situations that cause diseases or lead to the loss of human life, all of these have an impact in the development of the country. Economic development through debts and environmental degradations”, says Xhemal Mato from “Eco-Movement” organization. Meanwhile, he says that over 70% of political parties have no detail or plan for the environment in the next four years.
PHENOMENON
Less talk on healthcare issues
Do you remember? Free healthcare was one of the main arguments that was used during the last campaign for the 2013 general elections. But this time, this issue has not been given the same importance in the speeches that have been delivered and the political programs that have been presented. We can easily say that the issues and problems that concern the health sector are no longer at the focus of these speeches. It seems that political leaders have decided not to speak about them or offer concrete details how they will be tackled in the next four years. On their part, representatives of the left wing majority just declare that they have started to implement reforms and make changes in this sector, but they don’t go any further than this, to say when there will be free healthcare in the country and how will the healthcare reform be finalized once and for all.
SECTORS
Sport, culture and even tourism have been mentioned very little
Sport and culture are two other sectors which political leaders have decided to “sideline” during this election campaign. More worried with economic terms, it seems that they have avoided them and haven’t addressed what will be done to improve them in the next four years. By considering them as sectors that do not “generate money” or “jobs” in order to attract supporters, sport and culture remain missing terms of this election campaign. Even when tourism was actually mentioned, it can be said that this has been done more with the scope of mentioning the reduction of VAT for this sector rather than present it as a strategy as to how this important sector of the economy will be developed during the next mandate.
