FLASH
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In the Balkans, in recent campaigns, no one has talked about the EU argument.
Flamur Noka's statement, during a meeting with part of the Dibrani diaspora in a municipality in the Campania region of Italy, also constitutes the essence of the political impasse of the campaign, at least so far.
Noka, referring to Edi Rama's political refrain about entering the European Union, said that this objective will not be realized. According to him, the EU does not even intend to include Albania. A statement, which was in fact a repetition of another position of Sali Berisha, who said that the European Commission has left the Albanian government in the same class regarding the chapters of the accession negotiations.
A statement that was immediately denied by the European Commission, which, responding to a question on Report TV, said the opposite of what the leader of the Democratic Party had said.
Edi Rama, who, in terms of PR methodology, is the most trained, since he officially started his political career, repeats in almost every meeting he holds, the essence of the Socialist Party's electoral message of May 11. "Vote for us so that we can enter Albania into the European Union by 2030". A message that, even as a result of endless repetition, has reached the general audience, but which it seems we have not seen anything of yet. After all, until May 11, it will not stop repeating endlessly at every rally, meeting, or electoral discussion that is distributed virally on Rama's social networks. Which, it must be said, have undergone an exponential increase in audience these days, which is also seen on the platforms of other parties.
But let's stick to the EU argument. Edi Rama is actually right when he says that the Socialist Party is the only European party that campaigns with the EU. The continent's left-wing parties dare not make the European Union their main argument, as they are afraid of losing consensus from the skeptical part that is considerable in almost all EU countries. In Great Britain, during the Brexit campaign, although the majority of the Labour electorate was against leaving the EU, the then leader Jeremy Corbyn was even more in favor of leaving Europe than his conservative rival. The Italian left is divided over the EU argument, to the extent that the leader of the center-left coalition, the head of the DP, Ely Schlein, uses leverage with a spondent to get to the Europe argument.
A few days ago, a grand rally for Europe and against Trumpian rhetoric was held in Rome in the “Piazza del Popolo”. But the initiative was called by a well-known journalist and analyst of La Repubblica, Michele Serra, where of course the square was filled with militants of the Italian Democratic Party. The only one who speaks for the United States of Europe is former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has a small center party and is in coalition with the left.
In the Balkans, in recent campaigns, no one has talked about the EU argument. In the recent presidential elections in Croatia, a member state of the European Union, their winner, the leader of the Social Democrats, Zoran Milanovic, was like a Eurosceptic candidate, where in some nuances he even came across as a bit pro-Russian, just to capture that part of the electorate that is dissatisfied with the Union.
In a word, the EU argument that Edi Rama has opened is a cause that has not been used before in recent years. However, the fact is that Rama is holding the campaign on this pillar, that is, he is turning his entire rhetoric around this logic.
There are two paths for the rest of politics; that is, for the opposition, either they can also call it their cause, or they can overthrow it by coming up with a different stance.
First, it would create an interesting debate that could perhaps even help the opposition, by creating a perception among the European audience that Albanian politics has the European Union as its political cause. The opposition could give its position in this debate on how Albania can enter the EU, even if it does not win a majority, but if a different government comes.
If this were to happen, then Rama would also modify his political stance, when he says that if we do not get a strong mandate, another government could slow down the negotiations. So far, the stance of the DP, for which this cause has become an impasse, is simply coming into line with the logic of the prime minister and the leader of the majority.
On the other hand, if the opposition had a different stance from the EU, it should elaborate it and turn it into a political ideology. Since there are many political forces in the Balkans and Europe that are essentially against the EU.
But the opposition's impasse is resembling their reaction to the swamp owl trap. Where instead of a political platform that would overthrow the opposition rhetoric or caricature of Edi Rama, they deal with an idealization of the owl as a character. Berisha's ideologues, those who call themselves professors, even though they are unkempt mustaches, but also TV panelists do not stop bringing arguments that the owl is a positive character, not only for swamps and marshes, but also in ancient history or sacred scriptures. In a word, they fall into the quagmire that Rama has raised, to which they go behind in every electoral nail that he drives in his rallies...
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