Albania has its new government after the 25 June elections, held in a bizarre and abnormal electoral process, when the election date was postponed amid suspicions as to whether the elections would ever be held. When the opposition threatened that it would not participate, taking the country into a deep political crisis, and an agreement was packaged and nervously thrown on the table by the international community.
When for the first time, the elections would be held by a technocrat government that would show the opposition’s fear for massive purchase of votes with money generated from cannabis and organized crime.
When TV studios and press analyzed government programs less than before and the same faces justified the sides.
When the main joint governing party didn’t make an analysis of the four years in power, it didn’t accept responsibility for anything and promised almost nothing, by replacing the program with terms such as “baking pan” and “steering wheel”.
When the issues that generated a strong opposition reaction through the Freedom Tent in the main boulevard of the city, could not be articulated loudly in the half-filled rallies of the campaign.
When voters were regularly exempted from participation through an election code that penalizes every independent incentive from the establishment, which puts decision making in the hands of the leaders, by making them omnipotent and when the concept of representation has been totally undone.
When the public has no idea about the next government that it is voting, about the political force still in power or the shadow government. Who will be appointed as the head of finances, healthcare, education, wellbeing?! The “boss” knows it.
When, in an unprecedented act, the Prime Minister who came out of the elections, heeds the problems that people have after the voting process and not before them, by pretending he doesn’t know anything about the daily injustices that common Albanians face and by always blaming the previous four years or the one that he shared power with.
When the media cease to be media and turn into services upholding the interests of the government, offering “programs filled with lies”.
All of this in a difficult economic situation, with the grey and black economy thriving and compromising any prediction for economic growth, with a failure of the Albanian diplomacy and administration in attracting foreign investments, accepted by the head of the government himself, in a situation where French and Dutch authorities threaten to restore the visa regime as a result of the high numbers of asylum seekers; in a situation where Albania is at the center of the map of the cultivation of cannabis and as a country which acts as transit for heavy drugs and human traffic (Department of State); in a situation where 56% of Albanians who want to leave the country (Gallup), ranking as one of the countries with the biggest inequality between the rich and the poor (OXFAM) and with over 73% of Albanians who believe that economy has deteriorated (EBRD).
A small government, a reorganized government with ministries that divide and merge, with reconfirmation of figures who have served in the previous cabinet and with figures that leave without commendation.
We have a situation where the work of the ambassadors is openly considered as a failure, but their minister is kept in office; a situation where businesses launch all sorts of accusations about their treatment and the minister in charge is rewarded with a bigger ministry; a situation where a left wing government merges the Ministry of Social Wellbeing and Labor into one to create a single one, for the Enterprise, where in spite of the failures in the strategic sectors, the same heads are reconfirmed. So, Albanians have their government now.
A government formed by the Prime Minister who entered the campaign as an absolute leader and obtained 74 seats in Parliament, enabling him to do whatever he wants, not worried about the opposition, which at a time it was needed the most, it was consumed by internal struggles for power.
This is the picture of the political situation in a country where the authoritarian governing system competes with democracy (EBRD opinion poll where 50% of Albanians prefer democracy and 31% prefer an authoritarian government).
Where ideologies end up in the wrong hands to be implemented in the worst way possible. A neo-liberalism that privatizes and offers concessions for every asset in the poorest country in Europe, in the least social state of a frightening inequality, where farmers throw away their produce because there’s no market and where commerce is done through packaging written in Cyrillic alphabet.
Where the Prime Minister has a personal media channel and media owners become rich with public money.
Where the opposition is significant in numbers and it’s represented by both left and right, but an opposition which is more worried on destroying itself than the government; where energy is spent to justify the noise about flirts with the power, rather than engage in a logical fight against it.
Where foreign policy is done by wearing a pair of ADIDAS sport shoes.
Where politics helps people to live, feed, build a status, secure the education of the children, a job for the wife or husband, create immunity against any confrontation with justice, buy a second or a third home, turn into an icon of fashion on Instagram.
Where any form of approach toward politics is replacing any form of participation in it. Where there is no organization of protests, causes, participations in voting. Where unions are missing and civil society can be considered as a ministry without a portfolio of the government. Where politics is something that one does for leisure and not as a deep moral engagement. The ones that don’t consider it as such, do not find any reason to be involved in it.
Where the train toward the European Union has taken another direction, due to the closure of the last station. A stop somewhere in the region, to justify failure of the country and the entire EU. The region which doesn’t compete with its exports, innovation, GDP per capita, investments and infrastructure, heading toward an EU to which it can only guarantee cannabis and asylum seekers.
This country has its own government today. A government created by the man who was trusted with power in the four years to come. A man who took the credit of victory of elections and who will take credit for success or criticism for failure in a country where the desire for democracy is rivaled by the one for authoritarian power.
Make no mistakes, today, only 4,5% of the world’s population lives in a country entirely democratic, because according to the Economic Intelligence Unit for Democracy, 45% of people live in problematic democracies and 33% live in authoritarian democracies. Data shows that the world is less democratic than 10 years ago. There are even indicators that challenge democracy: countries which have experienced a significant rise of competition in the last years are non-democratic and some of them are world models in terms of the behavior of their public officials.
But, Albania has failed in all of these indicators. There is neither increase of competition, nor a competent public administration. Everything has been confirmed by the leader of the country, the man who has promised that he would solve any problem that Albanians have in the hearings with the people, the man who built the program by consulting with the people after the elections, who has an unimportant role in international developments and who is entirely dependent on the oligarchs of the country. This is 2017 Albania with its logical government.
Note: The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Albanian Free Press’ editorial policy
