By Ben Andoni
By today, the Democratic Party should already have had the name of its candidate for Tirana’s City Hall—and not just the candidate, but his entire campaign team. Or more precisely: from the very day Veliaj began his clash with justice, PD’s structures should have been working on their alternative.
Time is showing that even the opposition’s continuous protests in 2024, staged right in the most difficult stretch of the summer, had a single purpose: the downfall of Veliaj. Yet today, almost seven months after his arrest, while the Socialist Party already has its candidate and even its political coordinators in place, PD remains oddly at ease, almost as if it had long been running the capital’s municipality itself.
The first problem is statistical, and it looks insurmountable. Këlliçi’s votes aren’t enough (100,425 votes: 34.58%). Bejko’s votes hardly count (12,398 votes: 4.27%)—even though he was shamefully abandoned by his own (!). Qorri’s party (which secured a notable 13,851 votes: 4.77%), part of the small parties but with more identity, refuses any cooperation with Berisha. The rest of the candidates carry negligible weight if one follows the electoral logic.
The second problem is even more troubling. No one inside wants a winner from the opposition’s own ranks, because that would shatter the core narrative: Berisha’s central role. The historical leader cannot lead the campaign on the ground, while the others hide behind his back. For Berisha, another loss is easily justified. For anyone else, however, it would be political suicide.
Which means this: a victory by any PD or united-opposition candidate would create the dangerous perception that success is possible without Berisha. Nobody within wants to face that reality, because they don’t want new protagonists in a space where zones of influence have already been carved up. And secondly, the aristocracy of the opposition prefers to criticize, insult, and curse from the sidelines, rather than to build and challenge.
This is exactly what the public sees today: a campaign that has yet to begin, with no candidate name in sight, and a pointless delay by the Democratic Party—together with the mishmash of positions from its own people when it comes to the battle directly ahead.
(Javanews)