The aggressiveness of the red socialist headquarters - the expression of the sterility of its ideas
Since last night again... or perhaps even earlier, the leaders of the pink headquarters were posing on television screens, on the front pages of newspapers and in the offices of the print-correction staff, congratulating themselves on the noise they had created. Not that the public does not often like scandals, even the noise they generate, but in any case Albanians are not used to defining the limits of democratic development according to the logic of chaotic politics. That was all it took for some independent journalists (?) to endlessly fantasize, for hours on end, about a high-level meeting that had not even taken place in our country, without almost leaving the television screen or the radio microphone. The truth is that the chairman of the Socialist Party, Mr. Fatos Nano, launched his campaign with a press conference, threatening the Albanian opposition over an alleged high-level betrayal! According to him, his brainless party members had done nothing but invent an alibi to avoid contact with public opinion, after challenging them a few days earlier to a televised debate.
Without commenting on the bitter taste of these absurd debates, at a time when public opinion is focused on the high-level meeting of the European Union, let us pause on some ugly aspects of this reaction. First, to reduce an entire forest to a single branch. It is unforgivable the narrow-mindedness of Albanian politicians, who, barely two weeks after the “gentlemen's agreement”, melt the ice in relations with the presidential institution, involving the head of state in such a scenario. As above, even in this first detail, the abyss of their political thought becomes even more evident. Second, to remind public opinion of what is happening in this country. According to the PS leader, the “attack” by his “enemies” seems to have diverted his political attention elsewhere. At a time when our greatest concerns stem from the lack of faster political and economic reforms, from the incompetence of the public administration, from delays in privatization, we social democrats (?) have chosen to deal with fabrications about mafia-like scenarios in which the names of entirely innocent people, brothers of presidents and government spokespeople, are mixed and stirred up. Perhaps that may have been Mr. Nano's choice, but it belongs to him alone. No one, and least of all Albanians, has accepted such a thing. What is most striking is that a day after this hysteria, the left-wing media continued to do the same thing. Right there, a hypothesis opened its own path, which, although from a different position, still cannot be ruled out. Could it be that all this confusion was an expression of the bankruptcy of a programmed political vocabulary? If so, what is more terrifying than trying to escape reality with the terror one has bred oneself?
In truth, Mr. Nano's political “tiredness”, already visible before the inter-party forum, in the light of the expiration of certain “investments” made, has begun to bear its “fruit”. It seems that he is feeling the difficulties of an opposition force which, instead of objectively analyzing its situation, role and behavior, has chosen to invent “accusations” of “coup” and “conspiracies”, thereby prolonging even further its own agony. There is no doubt that in this small Albanian world, fabricated scenarios developed by conspiracy boards of the “someone told me that...” type may have a certain political market share. But they do not serve the seriousness of politics, and even less an opposition that would tomorrow administer the majority vote. This kind of “conspiracy” reminds us of swindling and of that unrestrained language that we heard very well a few years ago from the Albanian fanatical left. At best, even if it is accepted that the opposition is all in panic, Mr. Nano and his top circle should know that power is won neither through ostentatious alibis nor through the vile acts of insulting a political opponent by branding him a “putschist”.
All of this shows that the “Strategy of political action” of the old left leadership is taking shape and coming to life through an extreme mental confusion. And what is more worrying is that this is happening at a time when Albania has a thousand and one problems to solve. Until now there has often been talk, in a commonplace way, about the rhetoric of the right, but their “ills”, as is being proven, are far fewer than the monstrous fairy tales invented by the head of the opposition. These find refuge in the old disk of super-slander fantasies. This “disk” has tired us with its long and maddening echo. Isn't it enough already? They express not only a marked lack of ideas and a crippled political intelligence, but also a deep pessimism toward the laws of democracy, political rotation and Albania's prospects. Today our opposition needs to do something else: reflect more clearly and understand that in modern politics, ideological aggressiveness and unbridled communication will inevitably lose out to pragmatism and civil behavior.
XH. PINA