Now 20 years old, post-communist Albanian democracy needs to grow up beyond its teenage years of conflict, boycott and misuse of power.
Tirana Times
Post-communist Albanian democracy has now reached the two-decade mark. Its first step was the creation of the country’s first official opposition party, which marked the end of the one-party communist system that ruled the country for five decades. The founding of the Democratic Party of Albania and its official acceptance by the ruling regime 20 years ago, marked the start of the end for Albania’s harsh communist regime and is one of the most important events in the history of Albania since the country’s independence nearly a century ago.
There have been a lot of achievements in Albania since the Democratic Party came into the scene, but the country is clearly still in transition and nowhere is this more evident than in the political arena, where 20 years later the functioning of democracy is really not up to par with that of a modern European state.
Now 20 years old, post-communist Albanian democracy needs to grow up beyond its teenage years of conflict, boycott and misuse of power.
The current political deadlock is a sad commentary on the state of Albanian democracy and fuels negative perceptions among Albanians about themselves and their political leaders.
According to a recent survey by the Albanian Institute for International Studies, the struggle for power is the single greatest problem in Albanian politics today, identified as such by 35.1 percent of respondents. That is followed by lack of free and fair elections with 18.9 percent, and lack of democratic experience by 13.2 percent.
As the first opposition party, the Democratic Party has an obligation to strengthen democracy in Albania. It has now been in power for more than five years, and beyond economic progress, it needs to show it is improving the country’s democratic foundations. The Democrats, of course, must have a reliable partner for a better Albania in the main opposition Socialist Party. And much more is needed in that direction from both sides.
“Contentious politics and the boycott of the parliament by the Socialist Party after the general elections of June 2009 may be one of the main reasons for identifying the power struggle and lack of free and fair elections as the main problems of the Albanian politics today,” the AIIS study notes.
It’s also not a good omen when often the two main opponent party leaders are seen by many Albanians as problematic. The leader of the Democratic Party and currently prime minister is seen by 11.3 percent of those questioned in the survey as the biggest problem, compared to 5.7 percent who think the same for Edi Rama, the socialist party leader. That’s at a time when politicians in general are seen only by a minority of 5 percent as the biggest problem.
In the end, Albanian democracy will likely strengthen as the time goes by and the country gets more integrated into Europe and EU institutions, but the pace of that movement clearly needs to be stepped up. And all Albanian politicians need to do their part.
