By Ben Andoni
Everyone knows it, says it, and understands it—even within Berisha’s party—that this Democratic Party has no chance of returning to power. It’s so evidently true that all it takes is a simple provocation on social media, like the one from former MP Murrizi, and suddenly the entire weight of the party is thrown against you. Këlliçi faced even heavier consequences. Or worse yet, they simply shut you up. Bardhi and Gjekmarkaj stand as the clearest examples of the paradoxes within the DP. Never before has such utter inability shadowed the DP at every step.
Three months after May 11th, there is still no sign of introspection or analysis. But one social media post by former MP Spaho makes the reasons glaringly obvious. With the level of representation and internal structure currently at play, the DP is incapable of addressing institutional concerns or building the kind of framework necessary to win. Its weakness is so glaring, you see it in the anemia of its rhetoric, the vagueness of its future, and, above all, in the confusion of its present.
The DP talks—and keeps talking—about launching political action in September, about analyzing the elections, about adopting a new approach in Parliament, where they claim they’ll only show up for European Integration Laws and a handful of real issues. All the while, Berisha himself continues his solo outings, accusing—daily and loudly, with videos and statements—the elections, the system, and everything else.
Meanwhile, Albanians are left waiting each day, wondering how they will survive the insatiable appetite of Rama’s people, who are devouring everything in sight: a bloated and incompetent administration full of arrogant peacocks; frightening prices and a cost of living that’s unbearable—even for the middle class; and a future where all the government seems to talk about is tourist numbers.
People want a return to agriculture, to domestic production. They want better education and a crackdown on the informality that’s choking the country. But aside from propaganda, there’s little good news. From the DP, there are only accusations from the few voices that remain, and even less vision. Its weakness mirrors the nation’s inability to react, a nation unsure of what will happen next.
The real crisis now is moral—and that’s something the people in power don’t understand. Ironically, various media and sources increasingly point out that some of those in power are quite entangled with the opposition as well.
But while the DP’s weakness stems from the weak individuals within it, the Albanian people know how to forgive—if you bring them back to a sense of normalcy and trust—because at their core, they are a vital, resilient people. Even the National Renaissance in the 19th century spoke of this return to normality, at a time when Albania wasn’t even a state, but split into four vilayets. They still believed in the Albanian spirit.
And Gandhi had one more encouraging theory: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
The DP may never apologize for what it’s done—or for its ongoing incompetence—but Albanians can. Because they long for, and deserve, the change that has been denied to them.
(Originally published in JavaNews)