Comparing the Swiss left with the Albanian left is as mistaken as comparing a date with the desert
Mr. Duke, starting from Kadare’s theory, according to which he argues that political conflicts in Albania have been used and are being used with violent means to carry the personal ambitions of the head of state through to the end, writes that the Albanian political class is divided into 3 groups: the corrupt, the incompetent, and the group of honest intellectuals.
He draws attention to the fact that one of the greatest mistakes of Albanians in these last five years has been prejudice regarding social democracy. Switzerland, in his view, is one of the countries with the longest-lived parliament in Europe, where the left and the right have alternated with one another, but with a different political sensibility from the Albanian one. He believes that in Albania the debate between supporters of the left and the right should not be Manichaean. However, he thinks that not every left-wing force can be the same. Comparing the Swiss left with the Albanian left is as mistaken as comparing the desert with the date.
At the time, part of the PD and the Albanian press that support it, including your newspaper, called Fatos Nano, whom they had just released from prison, worse than Enver Hoxha. Reading, at least some of the issues of the last few days in your newspaper, made me doubt whether this practice is not now continuing. It seems to me that the late journalist of “Koha Jonë”, Mr. Arben Broci, according to whom some journalists of “Koha Jonë” prefer “to look at politics with binoculars and not with their eyes,” is also being confirmed in this case. This is because it is clear that in Albania there does not exist, just as it could not exist before 1991, a division into the three main currents of the political spectrum: social democrats, Christian democrats, and republicans. In fact, these are people with the most varied beliefs who became involved in the anti-communist movement to overthrow the totalitarian regime of the PPSH. The success of the anti-communist movement toppled the regime, but not at the same time the entire old political class and culture. On the contrary, it happened that many former communists of the PPSH, and not only them, found themselves easily within the new political movement, in the ranks of the PD, confusing a not small number of people. Added to this is the organizational form of this party, within which a decision is de jure taken collegially, but de facto by a single man. This means that its formal leaders, e.g. the chairman or vice chairman, in certain circumstances are destined to play the role of a spare tire or deputy secretary, having as their primary task the implementation of decisions made from above. Another factor that helps keep such a “status quo” alive is the low level of political culture among the Albanian electorate. These factors mean that even today in Albania people with a communist background continue to make a political career even under pluralism, occupying key positions not only in left-wing parties but also in right-wing parties. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why in Albania, a country with an almost homogeneous population from an ethnic, religious and cultural standpoint, one can find a more tense political climate than in countries such as Belgium, where there are Walloons and Flemings, or Switzerland, where there are German speakers, French speakers and Italian speakers. In these countries there have been, and still are, tensions and conflicts on ethnic, linguistic or religious grounds. Nevertheless, democratic institutions function. For example, in Switzerland there have been several pressures to outlaw the social democratic party and the communist parties, starting from their involvement in anti-state activities. However, the drive to take measures against them has been based on law and not on phobias. In this sense, notions such as “the left” or “the right” cannot be demonized in such a way as to turn them into scarecrows for the electorate. There is a radical difference between Swiss social democracy and what is called the Albanian left. If you refer to the history of these countries, the former was formed as an organic political current under the conditions of a democratic and consolidated society, while the latter emerged mainly from the ranks of the former communist nomenklatura. Therefore, the mechanical comparison of them is a great distortion.
Tr[?] Luikasoni, the leadership of the
the leadership of Albania is as if you were comparing
Europe with the Madhouse
N.[?] Dylen[?]
Mr. Duke also says that we must not fall into the trap of political Manichaeism and that it is wrong to automatically consider anyone who calls himself left-wing as an enemy of democracy. He stresses that Albania needs modern left-wing forces, detached from the totalitarian legacy and capable of respecting pluralism. Otherwise, even a right wing that remains hostage to authoritarian methods would be just as harmful to the country. So it is not the label that matters, but the content, the program, and the behavior toward institutions.
For this reason he criticizes the approach according to which every political opponent is labeled a communist, traitor or anti-national. Such language impoverishes public debate and keeps the country trapped in primitive schemes. According to him, Albania needs a political elite that rises above revenge, the demonization of the opponent, and the use of the state as booty. Only such a new culture would give meaning to the pluralism after 1990.
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