FLASH
Shkruar nga Roland Lami
The irony is that this strategy was once criticized by its creator, Sali Berisha, but today he uses it as a tool to revive opposition action and exert pressure on the government in search of a "technical government."
The idea floated in the media by the Democratic Party of a possible lockdown in the improvised tent in front of the Prime Minister's Office on February 10, as a form of radicalizing opposition action, is not a political innovation. It is the return of a worn-out strategy that Albanian politics has previously tested without success.
The move away from institutions and the replacement of parliamentary oppositionism with protests and blockades on the boulevards has shown, not once, but several times, that it creates more noise than political clarity. Moreover, it serves to fulfill the leader's calculations about the party's interest and shifts attention from ideological confrontation to improvisation and political tension.
The irony is that this strategy was once criticized by its creator, Sali Berisha, but today he uses it as a tool to revive opposition action and exert pressure on the government in search of a “technical government.” Previously, this strategy was tested in the Socialist Party in 2010, after losing the 2009 elections.
The SP umbrella served to divert attention from the statute that called for the leader's resignation after losing the 2009 elections and to radicalize the situation within the party, marginalizing critical voices like Ben Blushi. We recall the slogan at the time: "Open the boxes or leave."
Lulzim Basha also tested the same model in 2017 with his famous tent: parliamentary boycott, pressure from the streets and the slogan "Technical government, no elections with Rama".
This action was not perceived as a strategy for real political change, but as a way to consolidate Basha's authority within the DP, as he was perceived as Berisha's puppet, and to create a loyal team that was only subordinate to him, no longer to Berisha.
Essentially, the umbrella has not functioned as a governing alternative, but as a symbolic shelter for a leader in crisis and for an opposition that closes off thought and limits criticism of the leader. Even today, the idea of the umbrella aims to be used for the same functions, replacing the analysis that provokes Salianji and others with radical action, the program and the need for transformation with vague causes that maintain the status quo with the need to expand supporters since polls show that the DP no longer enjoys the support of about 27% of the voters who voted for it on May 11, 2025 with a focus on its radical part.
In conclusion, the consequences of such actions unfortunately extend beyond the opposition. Democracy walks with one foot, while the opposition stands outside the institutions, claiming that change comes from the grassroots, not from the law.
The umbrella does not revive institutional or electoral hope; it repeats a failed model in which the party system lacks seriousness, orientation, and strategy to gain the trust of citizens, but it does gain one thing: it consolidates the current leadership in the opposition and in the government.
Lini një Përgjigje