By Skënder Minxhozi
It was long, hot and without news. Some may say that among these three elements that we are mentioning about the summer that we left behind, the third one is perhaps the most positive one. We can also read the famous journalistic maxim “no news, good news” inverted, “good news, no news”. However, the “biblical” length of this summer, which can be barely remembered when it has started, especially the terrible heat wave that arrived in Europe in the past three months with the fires and African heat, will be remembered by Albanians for a long time.
It’s unimaginable how in our country, which has many things to do and many problems, a new government that has come out of the elections, has the luxury to wait three months to enter office. More than a constitutional glitch, this is a historical vice of Balkan lazy people. It seems as if this long summer period has been invented to enable them to leave and “get some things done”, while young people can go and enjoy the beach for a little longer.
If we ask an ordinary Albanian today on the street about the election result, chances are that he will answer that Rama (not the SP!) won the elections and that Lulzim Basha conceded a big defeat. He will further say that Lulzim Basha had conflicts within the party and that Ilir Meta became President and appointed his wife as head of the party. As far as figures, seats, promises and etc, etc, are concerned, it’s hard for anyone to remember them. And rightly so. The absurd constitutional situation that is produced in this country every time there are elections, is as exemplary as disgusting. It looks as if the old government doesn’t want to leave, while the new one avoids responsibility at any cost. Justifications such as the need for holidays, in a country which has so many urgent things and where there’s no time for holidays, are absurd.
Everyone on the beach, everyone on… Facebook! The Prime Minister with promotional articles and photos, the leader of opposition with silence and sporadic reaction and the former Prime Minister who is more and more looking like the Japanese soldier in an Island of the Pacific, who doesn’t know that the war is over. Meanwhile, the President, with his new headquarters, with his old sorrows about the elections and a new political project which is still unclear about the party for which he sweated so much during the election campaign. Amid all of these famous names, the social network community tried to penetrate within and ruin the holidays of the leaders, by crying out for the fires, the sewage waters in beaches and the long queues in the border.
In September, Albania will pass entirely into the hands of Edi Rama. And this time it will not be divided, but all of it, from North to South. He will also have in his hands the thick file of crisis and hopes, economy, roads, integration, jobs and corruption. And this hot summer climate, with idiotic news about beaches, gossips and new ministers, news for fires, road accidents and tourist figures, seemed to have been prepared for this triumphant entry of the omnipotent majority of the next four years. A majority, which in fact has the image of one single person. Away from any provocative parallelism with the past, we have found the one that we were looking for: a strong and composed leader in the work that he has promised that he will do.
Holidays have ended. Even officially. On Sunday, socialists will tell us what the structure of the cabinet that will govern us until 2021 will be. Everything will restart with Rama’s charisma, Xhafaj’s success story, with the names of Gjiknuri, Bushati, Ahmetaj, Nikolla, Peleshi and Beqaj and some other name (probably a woman) that will be mentioned. Political life resumes in September and Albania returns to the “normality” of the banal parliamentary sessions of Thursday and the endless political brawls. And when we think of what we’re expecting to see, we feel regret. We don’t know if we were better with the heat of July or the chaos of the Fall.
Yesterday, three planes landed in Rinas with asylum seekers repatriated from Germany and France. Let us wait and see if they will try and leave in the months to come. A strong test for a new government, which is taking in its hands a country with many homes, but also with many bitter illusions.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
