FLASH
Shkruar nga Eduard Zaloshnja
Currently, only 15% of Albanians in the country want the 80-year-old prime minister, and only 37% want the 60-year-old (the support ratio for each seems proportional to the longevity of their respective parties). Very few Albanians here want 50-year-old Basha or 55-year-old Meta as prime minister, while most want someone who has not yet appeared on the Albanian political scene.
The February 20 protest on Tirana's boulevard confirmed that the real leader of the Democratic Party, 34 years after its foundation, remains Sali Berisha (despite the fact that Lulzim Basha appears as the president of its seal). Over the years, there have been many de juro chairmen of the DP (Azem Hajdari, Aleksandër Meksi, Eduard Selami, Tritan Shehu, Lulzim Basha), but the de facto leader since its foundation has been only one - Sali Berisha, a former communist since The 1968s.
Looking at the 34-year history of the DP, one automatically thinks of the history of the rival SP (which is the modern continuation of the NPSH and the ALP).
On November 8, 1941, when the Albanian Communist Party (PKSH) was founded, 33-year-old Enver Hoxha was elected its temporary chairman. But he became the de facto leader of the party (with the strong support of Montenegrin Miladin Popovic and Serbian Dusan Mugosha). In 1944, his leadership was challenged in the Second Plenum of Berat, but he survived thanks to Sejfulla Malishova and the Macedonian Velimir Stojnič.
In 1948, Hoxha's leadership was seriously challenged in the Eighth Plenum by Koçi Xoxe, but survived thanks to Stalin's powerful international intervention. And after surviving as leader, he changed the name of the party from NPSH to ALP (as well as eliminated his closest associates until he died in 1985).
After the death of Enver Hoxha, Ramiz Alia became the de juro and de facto leader of the ALP, much milder than his predecessor. And when the democratic wave flooded all of Eastern Europe (as well as Albania more recently), Alia passed the baton of the old party (which in 1991 was called the Socialist Party) to Fatos Nano.
Nano remained the de facto leader of the SP until 2005, despite the fact that de juro, Rexhep Mejdani and Pandeli Majko had him from a small intermexo at the head of the party. Nano finally left the government, the party and political life, after losing the elections in 2005. His place has been taken (and he has no intention of letting go) the former anarchist Edi Rama.
And so, we come to the eve of the next parliamentary elections. In the race for prime minister, we will have on the one hand the 80-year-old ex-communist (who has been the sole de facto leader of the DP for 34 years), and on the other, the 60-year-old ex-anarchist (who is the next non-traditional of the three communist leaders of the NPSH/PPSH/SP). Currently, only 15% of Albanians in the country want the 80-year-old prime minister, and only 37% want the 60-year-old (the support ratio for each seems proportional to the longevity of their respective parties). Very few Albanians here want 50-year-old Basha or 55-year-old Meta as prime minister, while most want someone who has not yet appeared on the Albanian political scene.
Biographical note: My father was among the first members of the NPSH in 1941, later expelled and imprisoned by his party. I was among the first signatories of the DP in 1990, later I left my party.
Lini një Përgjigje