In a speech delivered during the last parliament session, and conveniently ignored by main TV news channels, the former minister of foreign affairs, Ditmir Bushati openly positioned himself against the approach, which his own majority and the Prime Minister Rama has adopted towards the political crisis that engulfed the country since the opposition MPs took the drastic decision to collectively give up their mandates.
Despite this aggressive act on behalf of the opposition, which he also condemned, Bushati called upon the majority and the PM Rama to renounce the arrogance and contempt that they are treating the situation with.
Bushati, which was removed from his ministerial post last December, in a move that raised many eyebrows, reminded the government and its head, but also the international community representatives, that democracy is not about procedures but about essential content. Bushati made an appeal for a political agreement that according to him should be made with the real opposition, the political opposition that is not the result of mere application of substitution procedures. “Democracy as a procedure is the formal substitution of the lists of the Democratic Party and the Socialist Movement for Integration. But democracy is also essence and in that regard gives us the opportunity for a future agreement for the Electoral Code and the rules of the game be that with the parliamentary opposition but most importantly with the political opposition. That I believe is the higher expression of awareness that the Socialist Party and the progressive Albanian socialists can have for the fate of democracy and for the fate of Albania,” Bushati said.
After the collective ‘burning’ of the opposition mandates, the Central Electoral Commission proceeded with the substitution of the MPs with those next in line according to the lists drafted by the DP and the SMI. The Prime Minister rushed to consider them as the ‘new opposition’, a move that went in line also with the stance of key high level representatives of the OSCE, which also considered it a legal and proper procedure.
In general, the international community that has a significant clout over the political developments in Albania was silent or dismissive to this situation, signaling in a certain sense the acceptance of, what is in fact, a fake opposition. Bushati called for a deal with the real political opposition which stands outside the Parliament doors.
Former Minister Bushati, who seems to be sketching an independent profile within the Socialist Party, called yesterday for a grand deal that would end the political conflict in Albania between the government and the opposition. Such a conflict has been a predominant and overwhelming characteristics in post-communist Albania.
Bushati brought to this speech the example of Greece and the Republic of North Macedonia that reached a peaceful agreement after several decades of being at odds with each other. Albania is now at a big and important crossroads- the former minister added. “Why it is that Greeks and Macedonians can find the way to look forward and we within ourselves cannot find a common language” – Bushati rhetorically asked in a parliament audience that kept eerily silent for most of the time.
The former high ranking member of the Rama cabinet bypassed the Prime Minister during his parliament speech by calling upon old school brand names of the Socialist Party such as Speaker Gramoz Ruci, former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko and Musa Ulqini, another senior figure of the SP, to step in and contribute to a solution. These three names are among the very few left from the Socialist Party that don’t come from the close loyal entourage of the Prime Minister himself that have followed him from the municipality and that are only loosely and recently related to the SP.
“I am asking you today, how can it be possible Mr. Ruci that after three decades as a politician of experience, how is it possible Mr. Ulqini, how is it possible Mr. Majko? Aren’t we all Albanians, part of the same nation? Why is it so hard for us to find a common language and move forward?” were Bushati’s strong words of appeal to his senior party colleagues.
The former minister used his speech in the parliament to send a clear message also to the international community and especially to the OSCE, whose independent credibility is at an all-time low in the country, to stop downplaying and ignoring the political crisis that Albania is currently facing.
Additionally Bushati was clear in implying during his speech that the government should give up its practices of “the state from point zero” or history starting whenever one side comes to power. He recalled to the attention of the majority in the parliament that the NATO membership was the final achievement of the contribution of all the political forces and governments. During the official ceremonies that marked the tenth anniversary of NATO membership for Albania the government did not send out invitations to the opposition or to former government leaders from the Democratic Party. In a ten minute spot broadcast in TVs, including the personal online channel of the Prime Minister –ERTV, the only featured portraits were that of Rama himself and of his current ministers.
Indeed Albania got the official membership invitation during the 2008 NATO Summit of Bucharest where the official participants were Prime Minister of the time Sali Berisha and Minister of FA, Lulzim Basha. In the Summit there were also present key high level figures of the Socialist opposition of that time.
Last but not least, in a very interesting move, Bushati also attacked the model of governance that has brought about the extreme economic polarization of the country and the accumulation of control over public wealth in the hands of a few oligarchs. This accusation is one of the strongest used by the opposition and one of the most resonant in the public opinion therefore the mentioning of it by a former minister of the Rama cabinet is set to make waves for a long time.
Bushati is for the moment the first public voice against the approach of Prime Minister Rama, to ignore and ridicule the political crisis, against the arrogance and the spirit of excluding the opposition to the point of treating it like the enemy front towards integration. The reaction of PM Rama, not visible during the session, will be of high interest in this regard.
It is still early to conclude whether the thesis presented by former minister Bushati to revise key tenants of the governance and narrative approach of PM Rama, to reconsider the governance model and especially to prioritize reaching a deal with the actual opposition have the potential to encourage and internal reflection process within the Socialist Party. What is clear at this point is the formation of a group inside the SP that opposes the policies of PM Rama. It seems like the former Minister of FA is at the top of this group or at least their sole public voice.
Moreover it is important to mention in this context that the rift between PM Rama and former minister Bushati stems not only from the different political principles that they seem to harbor but also because of the unsaid dynamics related to the removal of Bushati as minister at the end of last year. During this last month it has become clear that they have taken opposing sides in the internal fight for power within the Socialist Party, quite relevant to its very future. The Prime Minister Rama has in fact used against the former minister, the young deputy minister Cakaj who substituted him. In the last two public conferences, Cakaj has made unprecedented, indirect yet obvious accusations towards the former minister of presiding over a ministry entrenched in nepotism and illegality and has announced the undertaking of a deep reform in this institution.
Pm Rama might decide to easily crush this internal challenge by deploying his usual tactics of political gas-lighting or his media attack squad. In the meantime the public revolt of the former Minister Bushati remains one of the most robust and revealing discontent voices so far.
