FLASH
Shkruar nga Mero Baze
With Greece, he hoped to blow up the entire electoral process.
The Albanians of Greece proved to be the strongest bastion of the Socialist Party in these elections, with a result that in some cases exceeded 90 percent, and with an average exceeding 65 percent. This result is not a surprise to the Socialists nor to public opinion.
The great difference that was created in Greece is easily understood if we consider that Sali Berisha, in this campaign, tried to win the heart of Golden Dawn in Greece, by treating the Albanian diaspora in Greece as a Greek nationalist minority, while Edi Rama, on May 13 of last year, held one of the most historic rallies of an Albanian prime minister in the heart of Athens, making every Albanian in Greece feel proud of his identity.
The difference between them reflects the public disgust towards Sali Berisha's alliance with Fredi Beleri, for purely personal interests, hoping that Greece would give him victory and overthrow Edi Rama's popularity, gained in a year-long confrontation over the "Beleri" issue with official Athens.
Although the process in Athens was tried to be destabilized, unlike in any other country in Europe, through DHL subcontractors connected to certain Greek circles, the diaspora votes were not stopped. About 20 thousand voters were eliminated from the list, but even so, the result was a national referendum against Sali Berisha and his alliance with Beleri's Golden Dawn.
And Berisha himself knew this better than anyone else.
It was for this reason that, on the first day of counting, he ordered Ilirjan Celibashi not to open the Greek ballot boxes, and then to contest them as irregular. It was an attempt that he had been preparing throughout April, together with his allies in Greece, to sabotage the process.
Fortunately for the opposition, although the Greek result was deeply pro-socialist, it did not add any mandates to the SP. The only case where the Socialist Party could have taken the 84th mandate because of the Greek votes was Lezha, but it lost by only 50 votes. And the socialists, instead of shouting about manipulation, wished their opponents the mandate.
Now imagine if the final result of the elections in Albania depended on the votes of Greece and the socialists had taken victory from them?
Of course, Berisha's challenge would be much more fierce than it is now that he has "dropped his pants".
It was precisely this scenario that Ilirjan Celibashi attempted to construct, postponing the counting of Greece’s votes in the hope that they would become “grenades” to blow up the entire electoral process. But the socialists had already secured 83 mandates throughout Albania and the diaspora, not including Greece at all. Greece was neither added nor removed from any mandate, but the attempt to use it as a means of destabilization was real.
This should be noted in the history of these elections, as the clearest attempt to destabilize the voting process in Greece through unofficial Greek service structures, linked to Berisha's allies; – and subsequently, as an attempt to use Greece's votes as a weapon against the electoral process in Albania.
None of this happened, because Greece's votes closely mimicked the votes of all of Albania, and led the Socialist Party to its 84th term by just 50 votes - as if to test how mature we are as a society when we lose and when we win.
But this does not change the fact that Sali Berisha had Greece as his only hope in these elections:
With Greece, he hoped to gain legitimacy in Europe,
With Greece, he hoped to manipulate the voting process,
With Greece, he hoped to blow up the entire electoral process.
Now, neither Greece nor Beleri needs them anymore. Even the Democratic Party no longer needs them, both of them. Thanks to him, the DP today has 43 MPs, while Edi Rama has 83 MPs – almost double.
Lini një Përgjigje