20.07.2021 – 12:31
The debate in the media, erupted by Mark Markut’s speech at the last PD Congress, can not but be related to the question of how Albanians are behaving in this new phase of the regime, which I personally consider a dangerous hop phase of “crime incites crime” policy. Simplifying it, I would divide my compatriots into four categories:
– in the category of those who feel part of the regime and the benefits it brings and who, in one way or another, have become part of the policies “crime incites crime”,
– in the category of subjects who say that we have to adapt because you have nothing to do;
– that of those who say we must flee to preserve the dignity and future of children;
– in the category of those who think that we should resist to change this situation.
Within the last category, the actors that are supposed to bring about change deserve special analysis, where I would distinguish:
– the parties I have called “the system”,
– “anti-system” parties or movements,
– civil society
In this article, starting from the debates after the Congress, I will analyze the situation of the DP.
* * *
After the April 25 elections, two main currents emerged within the DP. One is represented by President Basha and his supporters who support the thesis that the elections were manipulated by Rama with his own, that if they had been free the opposition would have emerged victorious, without bearing any responsibility for the loss. The other is divided between those who blame Basha, not to mention the election massacre, and those who, all emphasizing the election massacre, accuse the mayor of failing to unite, mobilize and inspire enough people to vote and defend the vote.
What is noticed is that in this debate the first group focuses the discourse on the individual Edi Rama as the cause of the loss of the DP, while the second on the individual Lulzim Basha, not touching almost at all an issue, in my opinion, that requires deepening and serious analysis of whether the DP really intends to change itself to change Albania. Retrieving a metaphor I used earlier – where I compare the system / regime to a three-story building and basement – I judge that today we have entered a new phase that makes what happened until 2013 almost impossible: the rotation in the third floor of the regime building without touching its following floors. This is because the following floors, ie, that of the oligarchs’ media on the second floor, that of the oligarchy on the first floor, and the “organized crime” in the basement, have become almost one with the only ruling party, so if the election game is played with and for the players inside this building, the chances of the opposition to achieve rotation are close to zero.
If we accept that this is so, as I believe, the idea that the DP lost / loses because Luli is incapacitated or sleeps (just like the fact that Rama is capable and wins after waking up at 5 am) is extremely reductive, and, inadvertently, it serves the system to put Albanians to sleep so that they do not see that the real reason why the opposition can not bring change in Albania is that.
For the sake of truth, the opposition approached – deceptively – this aunt when she left Parliament and declared that she could no longer serve as the facade of a regime. I say “deceitful”, because he was talking about the regime, and he reduced it to the evil will of an individual like Rama without connecting it with all the structures of the lower floors of the building. Understandably, this trick had its reasons. The DP did not want, or was not able, to touch the whole building because, being a party built within it, it could not break away from the oligarchs and their media for and with whom it had worked before, but also because it did not saw realistically achieving the rotation in the third floor offices if it would signal to the other floors that it would work against them. In fact, this “lesson” PD had taken since the 2017 elections when instead of growing even a little as opposition compared to 2013 saw itself, paradoxically, the only party that lost votes compared to three the parties of the ruling system. Therefore, even in the last elections, deeply, despite some rhetoric against the oligarchs and organized crime, she hoped to return to power in a building as it was when Rama took office in 2013, when the oligarchs and the media were divided between the main parties and organized crime was the most divided and not as crucial as it is now in the country’s economy, media and politics. Suffice it to say that a good portion of the PD candidates this year have been selected on the old criteria of the system: thus, attracting the wealthy who invest in the hope that running for parliament or taking power will create more opportunities for businesses their own and not why they aspire to represent the interests of the victims of this regime, to be convinced of it.
I have personally supported the return to the state of 2013 with pragmatic logic (better three gangs than one) arguing that this could serve as a brake on the acceleration that Rama has given to the machine that “crime evokes crime” and as a turning point; but the election confirmed that the downstairs players, with whom the opposition previously played on more or less equal terms, now play almost all with Rama’s gang (unfortunately along with the international referee).
Meanwhile, many Albanians who are victims of this regime, materially and morally, as Mark Marku said, have little interest in whether the miracle happens. The PD wins the office of the Prime Minister on the third floor if their lives do not change. In my opinion, this change can only come on a project of promising to dismantle the building, i.e., that would lead to organized crime in prison, oligarchs businesses in the free market based on merit, and the media by their instruments would turn them into means of investigating and denouncing their crimes? This cannot but lead you to the idea that in order to carry out this project, the DP, as a party of the system, must remove at least one head, one hand and one foot from the system building to connect them with its victims. and to work with them to dismantle it. However, this leads to the other problem I talked about above: the snake that bites its tail, as this party of the system, in one way or another, directly or indirectly, has most of its actors, including the mayor, mentally and materially connected to the system.
The difficulty of finding a way out of this vicious circle is extreme, but since it is about opening a debate, I judge that there can be no hope for real change if it does not focus on this issue.
