TIRANA, Nov. 2 – Ben Blushi, a long-time official of the Socialist Party and a rival of Prime Minister Edi Rama, has launched a new political party — Libra.
Blushi, who stormed out of Socialist Party at the end of September, said the new political party is open to all of those who have been disappointed by all political parties that have failed to keep their promises.
Blushi and a fellow MP, Mimoza Hafizi, who also quit the Socialist Party, said that “Libra stands for the Equal List (Lista e Barabarte, in Albanian), a merger of people and progressive ideas that are willing and passionate about their line of work.”
“Libra means knowledge. Libra means freedom. Libra means balance and justice. Libra is the recognition of being a savant and fair. I believe that lack of knowledge, limitations of liberty and continuous disruption of social equilibrium are the cause of misery and inequality in this country. These are the reasons that have driven me to be part of the project: Knowledge, Freedom and Equilibrium,” Blushi said.
The new political party provides a new challenge to the mainstream political subjects, and particularly to the government of Edi Rama who has been at the center of accusations for its unfulfilled promises, lack of strategic vision, ever closer links with criminal circles, bankruptcy of the rule of law and others, according to the opposition.
According to Blushi, LIBRA will represent “those who need more protection from the society.”
“LIBRA will represent the young and the poor. It will be the hope and compass of the middle class. It will reduce extreme and cruel polarization of a society that if it does not distribute its wealth will fail to win over poverty and ignorance it feeds,” the former Socialist minister said.
He pledged that the new political party will become an advocate for all of those Albanian citizens that have been forced to leave the country as a result of unemployment, chronic injustice and excruciating inequality.
“LIBRA will be an instrument to protect Albania and its nature from abuse, pollution and exploitation, as well as waste imports,” Blushi added.
Albania’s political scene is maze of political titans, political favors, and business ties that cannot be broken purely by political means. With the hope of introducing a new kind of politics, Blushi said that LIBRA is unlike any other political party in the country and will deviate from the shades of blue and red that have dominated the country’s political pool for two decades.
“LIBRA will be yellow. We are convinced that the red held us captive for 50 years. The blue impoverished us for 20 years and the purple color embarrassed us for three years. LIBRA will offer rapid and smart solutions and will challenge the frozen ideologies and doctrines,” Blushi said.
LIBRA is the second newest political party born in such a short period of time from the previous local elections. Few weeks ago, the former head of Albania’s energy company KESH and former senior member of the centre right Democratic Party, Gjergj Bojaxhi, announced the birth of a new party called Challenge for Albania, which was joined by intellectuals and members of the civil society wanting to bring an end to the current status quo and breathe fresh life into a nation that has had “its hopes, dreams and abilities suffocated by a political class that cares more about saving their seat in parliament then catering to the needs of their constituents.”
Since 1991, the Albanian political scene has been dominated by two political parties: the centre right Democratic Party of Albania (Partia Demokratike e Shqipà«risà«, PD) and the centre left Socialist Party of Albania (Partia Socialiste e Shqipà«risà«, PS). For the last 26 years, the country has been run between the two, until a political spat led to the birth of Socialist Movement for Integration as a splinter group of the Socialist Party of Albania.
In the 2013 parliamentary elections Socialist Party headed by Edi Rama promised a renaissance of the country and formed a coalition government with the Socialist Movement of Integration Party (Là«vizja Socialiste pà«r Integrim, LSI) winning 81 out of 140 seats in the parliamentary assembly.
The three parties have been embroiled in a vicious circle of endemic corruption, according to those who want to change the system, including Blushi and Bojaxhi.
