Albanian democracy, “hostage” to symbols
Naive Albanians thought that by bringing down the statue, removing the star from the flag, and changing the liberation dates, they had defeated communism, but symbols spring up like mushrooms
Today is 20 February, the symbolic day marking the toppling of the monument to the dictator Enver Hoxha.
Seven years ago, Albanians showed just how much they had loved the man who had imprisoned them in the great cell, in the bunkerized castle of socialism: out of their great love, they dragged him along and… dragged him along and demanded that he be exhumed. Those who toppled the dictator’s statue did not themselves become a symbol, for the simple reason that without the democratic and anti-communist people of the capital and all of Albania, an individual could not overthrow the most brutal dictatorship in Eastern Europe. In a way, the new era had had its fill of symbols, of headless idols, of the Lejfenët of amorphous socialism. It has been seven years since the symbols of primitive Albanian communism were toppled, but this people’s misfortune is that individuals try to turn themselves into idols, to proclaim themselves symbols. In these seven years, Albanian democracy has resembled a grave drifting on the open sea, without its own duties, neither captain nor sailors. Albanians toppled Enver’s bust not to erect one of Sali’s or Nano’s; they toppled the headless idols so as not to erect worthless statues. The neo-dictatorship Berisha tried to install in the name of democracy led to the violent overthrow of the state. Had the state not been violently overthrown seven years earlier? More on page 3