Albania’s May 5th and the French experience

TIRANA, May 9 – Albanians celebrate each year the Martyrs’ Day on the 5th of May, related to the World War II.
They did it again this year but like all the previous years in the last two decades it was made in a separate way from the government and the opposition parties, and also from separate political parties among the same coalition groupings.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha paid homage to the Mother Albania monument in Tirana Martyrs’ of the Nation cemetery declaring that Albanians enjoy nowadays the rights for which the martyrs fought.
Ceremonies alike were held from other personalities in a clear sign that though all Albanians do accept the fight of their martyrs they still consider it differently or in different political formats.
But Albanians could also notice in the news another way how politicians behave. This time it was in France where President Nicolas Sarkozy and the winning president Francois Hollande together, side by side, held a ceremony to remember the end of the World War II. It was Sarkozy who had insisted that the newcomer in the post, that still needs some days to sit in that chair, should be present.
That was also shown in the first moments when everybody understood that Hollande had won. Sarkozy officially and formally said that he had telephoned Hollande to wish him well in the post for the next five years and also called on all the French to support Hollande in his work “because France is one,” he said.
Isn’t it the same in Albania? Isn’t Albania one for all politicians too?
Well, yeah, would everyone answer, adding that we probably are speaking of two different-size countries like France and Albania? In fact it is more a different size in the democratic culture that the French politicians and the Albanian one have.