It’s The Economy, Stupid!

“The government will address unemployment and poverty, in its second mandate.” This seems to be the promise of high government officials, Prime Minister Berisha included, to Albanian citizens during electoral meetings for the June 28th elections.
It appears absolutely paradoxical to expect to win a second mandate through promises of alleviation of acute economic issues like unemployment and poverty projected in the next four years.
George Stephanopoulos, the key figure behind President Clinton’s successful electoral campaign in 1992, kept on his desk a sign that read “It’s the Economy, stupid”, as a constant reminder of the key issue of that presidential contest. Historically, economic matters have hardly ever been negligible, both in the domestic and international realms. Indisputably, though, economic matters have been decisive in elections, as well as in the nature of governance and policies since the beginning of the 21st century.
But if this is the case, then what explains this anomaly, though not the only one, in Albanian politics? Why are economic matters out of the spotlight? Why is a leader of unmatched experience like Prime Minister Berisha making such a mistake, if he is?
First of all, this is not a new development in Albanian politics. Electoral campaigns in Albania have never centered on economic matters, or basic public services such as education, health and the like. Still now, campaigns are more concerned with discrediting and possibly politically annihilating the opponent in the eyes of the public, rather than on debating issues and policies that, like the economic ones, are primary for any country.
Another possible explanation may lie in the fact that Premier Berisha’s centre-right government has invested a great bulk of public funds in infrastructure, and especially in the Durr쳭Kuk쳠road. Though a strategic project, this investment remains controversial, according to the opposition, for three reasons: (1) the extortionate cost (only 61 kilometers of the road are eating up almost a billion euros), (2) the lack of transparency and accountability in organizing the tender and implementing the project, and (3) the lack of a solid feasibility study of expected economic profits. Such impressive investments have in a way obscured more direct economic concerns from the citizen’s perspective, and, apparently unable to strike an encouraging balance in its first mandate, the government promises deliverance from these acute matters in its second mandate.
Till now at least, the electoral campaign is political at heart. Albania’s accession to NATO and the candidate status application for EU membership are gradually being crystallized into the trump card for the upcoming elections. Even though both issues, especially NATO membership, constitute extraordinary achievements, it remains hard to believe that they will affect voters’ behaviour to the degree where citizens bypass the economic concerns they face on a daily basis.
The electoral campaign remains political from another perspective too. Though two decades have gone by since the fall of communism, Albanian society continues to be affected by the communist – anticommunist divide to a considerable degree. This dimension of the government’s political campaign seems to be fed by the fact that the Socialist Party, successor of the Communist Party, is calling on board descendants of the former high officials of the Communist Party and government. The common memory of crimes during communism is indelible, however. And the dictator, Enver Hoxha, cannot possibly be the sole culprit for them.
In the meantime, economic issues seem peripheral, progressively overshadowed by the emphasis or predominance of other matters, such as citizens’ free movement to EU member states, also promised by this government for the second mandate. It is hard to believe that this promise can positively influence the outcome of the upcoming elections for the current majority, if we keep in mind that the Visa Facilitation Agreement signed between Albania and the EU has hardly been respected by EU member states. The visa barrier that Albanians face is indeed a tangible reality for citizens. On the other hand though, the government is clearly promising to deliver something it has little control over.
One more reason why the campaigns of political parties in Albania ought to have concentrated on economic matters is the mitigation of the negative effects of the global crisis that we have started to feel. Nobody speaks of this in Albania, though. The government and the opposition hush.
In the final analysis, focus on economic and development issues reflects the modernization of politics and society, which still seems distant in Albania.