Albania, the country of records

Albania, the country of records
It would take a lot to solve the problems that exist today in Albania, Balkans and Europe.

It is hard to pinpoint a solution amid this chaotic situation with the opposition in protest and the majority that doesn’t react. Even less when both sides are fighting for political life or death.

Today, Albania needs a very strong remedy to come out of the crisis, a crisis which this time, threatens not only our borders, not only those belonging to the countries bordering Albanians, but also the countries that don’t even know the name of Albania, because this country may serve as an argument for extremist parties which are getting ready to head to elections at a time of great insecurities in the East and West.

Today, Albania and the Balkan countries, which are in peace, have been engaged for years in a process of integration in the European family. There’s no comparison to countries in war such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, but still, people from these countries leave the region, in order to leave poverty, lack of opportunities, constant political crises and a poor economy.

Economic aid from Europe has not brought economic development or more democracy. And even the objective of integration in the EU didn’t make the reforms more effective. And the picture is the same for all Balkan countries: Unemployment continues to remain high, corruption, nepotism and clientelism frustrate the labor market, which is not based on merit, political parties have spread their influence everywhere in society, by turning into the biggest employers, deciding who deserves what. And for this, people are involved in politics to have better opportunities in life. Social infrastructure remains weak, with a healthcare system which is seeing hundreds of specialized doctors leaving every year. The state is being controlled by oligarchies which have fortified themselves around leaders. Media is struggling on a daily bases between censorship and self censorship due to the occult relations between their owners and the power. Ties with organized crime pollute the arteries of the power and the state. Albania has achieved two records: production and cultivation of cannabis and several seats in parliament which are reserved for MPs with criminal records.

If there’s one thing that shook Europe about the Balkans is the large number of those who want to leave the Balkan countries. Albania would start its alarming records in 2015, while the region continues to supply refugees, crime and traffics to the European countries. The European Union was shocked that amid those who flee war and terrorism are also those who leave a region of peace. The reforms which are funded with millions of euros cannot reduce the numbers of those who want to leave, because they are simply not applied.

This is a terrible misuse of social capital, that favors political elites, destroys people, lives and expectations. Europeans are realizing that dictatorship is not only created by war, hunger, torture or terrorism, but also by the lack of hope. Balkan leaders are now being labeled as autocrats. When Victoria Nuland, US Assistant Secretary of State declared that regional leaders should be cautious about terrorism threats, corruption and criminality, she also recalled them the autocrats and oligarchs that threaten these countries by protecting their interests. Many analyzed this as an example that targeted Russia, but in fact, the autocrats were in a region which on paper, represents a safe western perspective. But in practice, it is a source of chaos and real threat:

Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Dayton I agreement which is still in force, is a state which may be almost considered as a failed state. It has the Republika Srpska which wants to leave the agreement. Kosovo, a country frustrated by the fact that not all the countries are recognizing it and the strong provocations coming from Belgrade. Kosovo, whose process of the liberalization of visas has been blocked by a demarcation agreement which has prompted domestic and foreign political conflicts. Serbia, which up until a few months ago showed its muscles in a joint drill with Russian and Belarus forces baptized “Slav Brotherhood”. Unrest in the Balkans would cause sufficient chaos to bewilder the West. The West divided between the Trump era and the elections in three important European countries: Holland, France and Germany.

But this new European approach, conditioned mainly by domestic developments and the strengthening of extremist parties which cry out against the chaos caused by emigration and crime coming from countries in conflict, but also from those in peace (such as the Balkans), is also building the background for every possible reasoning in the analyses conducted on the recent political movements in Albania.

It goes without saying that the Balkans is ruled by an autocratic class and that Russia has been building its strategies exploiting the complexities of the region and Europe’s policies. But it is a very strenuous effort to try and interpret the developments in our boulevard by analyzing the large geopolitical developments.

Europeans may have placed a big bet on the reform in justice, tolerating the vocabulary and the anti-democratic behavior of political elites. But it seems that they have placed a lot of faith on one single player. On that player who usually prefers to take responsibility for reforms which apply to five or six future generations. Perhaps, but this man must also take responsibility for those concessions that the West and its ambassadors made on behalf of these reforms which would not generate migratory influxes, crime, drugs and traffic. Or even a new clash in the region, where the smell of powder is still fresh.

This is where the big conspiracy with the “foreign enemy” ends. An enemy which the Prime Minister transformed from a great tolerant friend, into the “hammer” that ruins the safe electoral victory.

This would really be a victory in case the reforms would have led to crimes to be punished and more welfare for society. Reforms which would prevent the tons of narcotic substances on the borders, trafficking, asylum seekers condemned to poverty and emigrants who lack hope. Reforms which also would have left the boulevard free for protests organized by civil society and unions and not the opposition, which, through the Freedom’s Tent, has set the line where the political game restarts: free and fair elections.

 

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