GIMME FIVE!

By Maklen misha
A momentous event took place in Tirana yesterday, the like of which had not been seen in Albania for a long time. At the end of a long meeting discussing the decentralization process Prime Minister Berisha and the leader of the opposition Edi Rama shook hands! Indeed as far as Albanian politics go this event was of the same magnitude as was let’s say, the handshake between Arafat and Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993. And just as that famous handshake, this one too seemed to herald the beginning of a new phase of ‘peace’ and cooperation between these two most important politicians in the country.
In fact it is rather depressing that such an event that would barely make it in the news in any normal, democratic country, in Albania makes the headlines. Unfortunately such has been the nature of Albania’s politics during its never ending transition that rival political leaders have generally avoided each other like the plague, while never missing a chance to attack, sully, smear and generally vilify each other using very vitriolic attacks, such as one usually reserves for one’s sworn enemies.
As one might have suspected such ways of addressing one’s political opponent are not a reflection of a constructive and consensual political climate; nor are they conducive to it. And Albania’s political life has hardly been any of that. If one but looks at the political developments during 2007 it is striking to see how little will both sides have shown to cooperate, to what extent short-term, narrow party interests have dominated over long-term, national interests and how much damage such behavior has caused for the country.
First there were the local elections of February 2007 which were judged to have been a missed opportunity by the OSCE/ODHIR for not meeting the criteria of free and fair elections. The reason for the failure? Lack of will to cooperate in order to implement the critical but elusive electoral reform. Then there was the election of the President that took the country to the brink of a complete deadlock and political crisis, yet again due to a lack of will to cooperate and make concessions. Then there was the matter of the Attorney General that brought about a near breakdown in relations between government and opposition and completely blocked any attempts at reforming the electoral system or the justice system. The result has been a growing polarization and radicalization of politics.
Both sides of Albania’s political spectrum are responsible for this situation, but for 2007 at least the lion’s share of the blame must fall on the government. It has systematically and unilaterally occupied almost all independent institutions in the country, thus forcing the opposition into an impossible situation where making concessions would have seemed like unconditional surrender. In the process the government has wasted much of its energies in political struggles aimed at consolidating its control of the power centers of the country while neglecting the reforms. Such behavior would have been careless at any time, but it becomes irresponsible at a time when efforts are being made to get an invitation into NATO and move forward with the EU integration process. After all one of the points both EU and NATO representatives have repeatedly stressed is the necessity for consensus in the implementation of the reforms which in most cases require more than one mandate to be carried out.
In light of this situation Wednesday’s handshake and the fact that Mr. Berisha supported Edi Rama’s request for a greater share of the tax revenue, to the point of arguing against the objections of his own Minister of Finance, certainly gives some cause for optimism, although it is hard to say identify the reason behind this apparent thaw. Maybe the Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi banged some heads together during his recent visit to Tirana, maybe the constant warning signals sent by the EU and NATO finally made an impression on our leaders or maybe they simply came to their senses. The important thing however is that there seems to be a will to change the frosty relations between government and opposition and that can only be positive. Now one can simply hope that the uncertain ‘peace’ that handshake seemed to signal survives the test of time.