FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
Berisha has reduced the DP from a party that Albanians trusted with two-thirds of the vote, to a party that barely gets a third of the vote. So, if there is any insult to March 22, 1992, it is the way Sali Berisha commemorates it.
There is a fragment in Pouqueville's memoirs about Ali Pasha Tepelena that shows that, beyond his cruelty, he was harsh with losers and unworthy heirs, even if these were his victims. Pouqueville, who was at that time the French consul in Ioannina, found himself at a dinner invited by Ali Pasha to his Palace, along with some Greeks of the city's nobility.
During dinner, after drinking a few glasses of wine, some of the Greek guests began to discuss with each other about Ancient Greece, its splendor, Socrates, Greek orators, etc.
Ali Pasha suddenly turned and asked them:
- What do you have to do with their glory?
– We are their descendants, Pasha – the bravest of them said.
– But who says that you are their descendants? – asked the Pasha.
– Books, Pasha – the Greek replied.
– Why don't you burn these books? – he said. – Aren't you ashamed of your ancestors, how you have become? Why do you shame them?
This scene described by Pouqueville, to show how a victor experiences the fall of the glory of his predecessors, brought to mind Sali Berisha's boasting about the victory of March 22, 1992, when Albanians voted massively against communism and brought the Democratic Party to power.
But time showed that, instead of the Democratic Party, they had brought to power only Berisha, who 35 years later has reduced Albania's first pro-Western opposition party to a fundamentalist cadre, trying to stay afloat only through a man declared "non grata" by the two largest Western countries, the US and Great Britain, for major corruption and undermining democracy. He has reduced the DP from a party that Albanians trusted with two-thirds of the vote, to a party that barely gets a third of the vote.
So, if there is any insult to March 22, 1992, it is the way Sali Berisha commemorates it. And if there is any “punishment” from God for it, it is to commemorate a square filled with over 100,000 people on March 22, 1992, with a handful of people that Albanian society shuns as if they were lepers on March 22, 2026.
So, if you have any mercy for March 22, do your best to no longer associate it with Sali Berisha. It is a date that Sali Berisha stole from Albanians and democrats; it is not a date that brings Sali Berisha back to power. It is a date that reminds us all of what it means to waste history and its chances for the interests of your family and your chair.
Lini një Përgjigje