FLASH
Shkruar nga Thoma Gëllçi
The Albanians who left during these three decades will finally have a place in the party that still has the same leader as it did in 1990, when they had not yet left Albania.
The Democratic Party gathered to “renew.” Candidates were presented for vice-chairs, secretaries, committees, and representatives of the diaspora. The list was long, the positions numerous, the procedure solemn.
Only change was missing.
Because the DP is going from Berisha to Berisha again.
Sali Berisha presented the candidates, defined the structure and explained the spirit of the statute. The National Council has the freedom to choose among the names previously selected by the chairman. Internal democracy functioned perfectly: members could vote for whomever they wanted, provided that the name was on Berisha's list.
The DP will now have a secretary for digitalization, human resources, European integration, property, human rights, and the fight against corruption.
Berisha also spoke about the youth. One of the vice-presidents will represent them. It's a truly modern idea: the youth of Albania will be represented in a party led by the same man who was at the head of state when their parents were young.
The diaspora will also have representatives. The Albanians who left during these three decades will finally have a place in the party that still has the same chairman as in 1990, when they had not yet left Albania. The existence of the same chairman will create the idea for them as if they had never left the country. They were in Berisha's party and they are returning to Berisha's party.
The problem with the DP is not the lack of new names. The problem is the old name that stands above all. The vice-chairmen, secretaries and committees may change, but as long as Berisha controls the party and Berishism controls its thinking, everything else is decorum.
The news reported that a member of the National Council presented a motion against mulism in the Democratic Party. But this is laughable. What is mulism? Does anyone seriously think that Muli in the DP has any philosophy of his own, besides Berishaism? But the members of the National Council know the rule: they can touch anyone, but not the Monument of Culture that bears the name of Sali Berisha. But that motion was also not accepted.
The hopes for reforming the DP are almost zero. It is showing that it cannot separate itself from Berisha as an individual or from Berishaism as a spirit. People in the square will continue to shout "Sold Out Opposition", in the unprecedented case when they are both against the government and against the main opposition party.
For many Albanians, the name Berisha does not recall the beginning of democracy, but its deformations. It recalls the elections of May 26, 1996, violence against the opposition, the famous SHIK, pyramid schemes, the overthrow of the state in 1997, corruption, Gërdec, and a way of governance where the state, the party, the family, and power often seemed very close to each other.
This is the burden that the DP continues to carry. Every time it presents Berisha as its future, it asks Albanians to forget his past.
But Albanians have not forgotten.
Berisha has managed to tie himself so tightly to the DP that every problem of his has become a party problem. Every accusation against him turns into a national battle. Every critic is declared a traitor. Every investigation is called a conspiracy. Every electoral defeat is considered theft.
Only victory is a personal merit. But he has never won. Even the year 2005 was simply a gift that Fatos Nano gave to Sali Berisha, giving him the alliance with Luftër Xhuveli, who had received four deputies with the votes of the Socialist Party. Sali Berisha, in his political history, has only recorded defeats.
In a normal party, the leader is responsible for losses. In the DP, losses are used as an argument for Berisha to stay. The worse the party does, the more irreplaceable the leader is declared.
The building is collapsing, so the architect is given another mandate.
This is also the greatest service that Berisha does to Edi Rama. The government may have scandals, corruption, arrogance and failures. But, whenever the DP is presented as an alternative, Rama suffices to point to Berisha and say: "Here is who comes after me."
Berisha says he is Rama's biggest enemy. In practice, he is his most useful opponent.
The DP has many problems: losses, isolation, lack of trust, inability to expand, and lack of a new alternative.
But it all begins and ends with the same person. You remember, I believe, that in the presidential elections, which were later called a vote of confidence, Sali Berisha faced Sali Berisha and won. Even now, the National Council has been invited to vote for Sali Berisha's candidates against Sali Berisha's candidates.
The DP is hopeless. It starts from Berisha, passes through Berisha and ends up back at Berisha. Endlessly.
Lini një Përgjigje