When the loser and the winner change their roles!

When the loser and the winner change their roles!
This article has been written for Albanian Free Press newspaper and www.afp.al

By Alfred Peza

Political parties and political leaders in Albania have experienced victories and defeats in the elections in different ways. All of this can be noticed in their approaches, public behaviors, external processes and internal developments that characterize them once the result comes out. Based on these experiences, we can determine the political destiny of these parties and the expectations for their results in upcoming elections. Based on the defeat or victory on 25 June, we can now see how the majority of these four years will be and in particular, the opposition of these four years.

This seems a little cynical, but it is true. A truth that was taught to us by the history of the others, but also by our history after 1990, which repeats and repeats itself. However, we seem to learn so little from it, by making, in fresh circumstances, the same mistakes as we did in the past.

But let us clarify this thesis. If you notice the behavior of the Socialist Party and the Prime Minister after the confirmation of the election result, you will see that the biggest victory that a political party has achieved after 1992, is being experienced with legitimate joy, but in a quiet manner, without triumph and almost with humbleness. And above all, with the conscience of an extraordinary responsibility that stems from a governing mandate such as this one, where a single political party and a Prime Minister will have a golden opportunity to form a government on their own without any other ally party.

This has encouraged Edi Rama to immediately start work for the future of the country, following the victory speech that he held in front of his supporters in “Scanderbeg” square. Although we have two hot summer months in front of us until the new government is formed on 9 June and until the new Parliament is constituted, the Prime Minister has not yet started his holidays. The same thing would be done by any winner, who, in fact, has the luxury of having a four year legitimate governing mandate, awarded by the vote of the people. On the contrary, Edi Rama looks as if he’s at the end and not at the beginning of his second governing term in office, by working every day with the same rhythm, leadership style and stamina as the first term, by convening the winning MPs in order to start a one month tour of meetings with people all over Albania, by forming work groups who will prepare reports and programs for the new governing term in office, following consultations with Albanian voters.

This team will also consider the opinions of common people of this country on the work and the priority of the new government. When you are serious about your work, people also take you seriously. Therefore, it was no surprise to see the large number of comments and suggestions after the question that the Prime Minister addressed to the general public “what must we improve?”.  Because people were invited to answer this question through the magic words: “If you were the Prime Minister of Albania, what would be the three main things that you would improve?” The preliminary statistics from the “Albania that we want” platform have shown interesting results. Out of 10 thousand suggestions, the main issues that people see as a priority are: Integration, employment through domestic and foreign investments, the strengthening of the rule of law, the improvement of the administration, improvement of education, reform in the justice system, development of agriculture, economy, health and tourism. This way, after the greatest victory that the Socialist Party has ever had, this party is in fact behaving with the humbleness of a “loser”, putting aside the triumph of the winner.

This is a clear sign that during this term in office, socialists will be united and will know how to read and implement the verdict of their citizens. Among others, this will also change the stereotypical behavior that used to exist during the first time socialists were in power. It was the time when the party was led by Fatos Nano, when socialists were divided when they were in power and were forced to unite when they were in opposition. After a difficult period in opposition from 1992 until 1997, they showed flaws during their term in power from 1997 until 2005, where election victories were accompanied by clashes, debates, divides, internal wars and leaks. But now, this behavior has changed completely. The bigger the victory, the more realistic they seem to be, but also more united. Meanwhile, the situation in the losers’ camp is completely different. Especially in the headquarters of the biggest opposition party in Albania, the Democratic Party, where its leaders are behaving like the winners of these elections and not like they conceded a very big defeat in the elections held in the last Sunday of June, registering the lowest historical score of this party since 1997.  It’s very easy to see that Lulzim Basha neither can, nor he wants to read the seriousness of this defeat as he should do. He doesn’t even want to analyze the causes of this loss, understand them and face them. And even less learn lessons from them, lessons which will help him to resume work “with the patience of a monk and the zeal of an ant”, to reorganize the right wing and help the Democratic Party recover, to unite democrats around a strategy and platform along with all the players that would help him gain power in four years time. By being a big loser of these elections, Lulzim Basha is allowing himself the luxury of behaving like an old Balkan type winner. Instead of making an analysis and facing the truth, he’s doing everything to evade it.

It’s common sense that the winner cannot be judged, but the leader of the DP is trying to tell us that even the loser is not judged. Instead of a fair and equal race, he’s only playing tricks. Instead of a race with real alternatives, he’s trying to appoint the opponents. Instead of extending his hand for reconciliation, he’s forcing all those who are against him to choose between an unequal race and departure. Instead of identifying the roots of evil in the past of his party, he’s trying to tarnish the reputation of potential candidates with demons from their past. Instead of having a winning strategy, is looking for a loser’s chair. Through this approach, Lulzim Basha is also altering a stereotypical behavior of the DP in regards to being in power and being in opposition, in contrast to the Socialist Party, which used to unite when in opposition and used to divided when in power and the Democratic Party led by Sali Berisha, which used to divided when it was in power and unite in opposition. From 1992 until 1997, when the DP was for the first time in power, it started to be divided and it shrank until it moved to opposition.

From 1997 until 2005 when he was in opposition, Sali Berisha realized that unification and the return of all of those who had left in the past, could bring back the Democratic Party in power, as it happened. Learning from the past, during his second period in power, from 2005 until 2013, Sali Berisha managed to keep the DP and its allies united, until he lost and was forced to resign, to give way to his desired successor. Meanwhile, not only Lulzim Basha is reluctant to leave after this loss, but he’s going farer than everyone thought. By not wanting to read it, he’s ignoring the result. Although he’s publicly evading it, in practice, he’s behaving as a winner with his defeat. Despite the costs, due to the support that he has from Berisha and his supporters, Lulzim Basha seems that he will manage to survive and seize another mandate as leader of the DP. Although this is a victory like Pyrrhus’, it is, nonetheless a victory for him.

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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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