Berisha-Meta coalition starting with talks at sea

TIRANA, Aug 3 – It was not clear whether Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Socialist Movement for Integration leader and former premier Ilir Meta met on a yacht off the shore of Dhermi in southwestern Albania, or if Meta had arrived in Dhermi by yacht.
That does not matter. What matters is that officially it was learnt that the two leaders met for the first time to talk on their new governing of the country.
Berisha asked Meta for a coalition immediately after the June 28 parliamentary election and less than two hours later Meta responded positively.
It was rumored that was a condition due to the assistance that the Democrats had given to SMI in vote counting earlier those days.
The final results showed that Berisha and his allies won 70 seats, which are not sufficient to create a new government.
Opposition Socialists Party of Tirana, Mayor Edi Rama, won 66 seats. They are to hold an extraordinary convention Aug 29 to decide how to use all forms of democratic protests against the alleged abuse of the vote count.
Meta’s SMI won four seats, enough to give the right to Berisha to form the new cabinet, which is expected in early September.
The decision by two political archenemies to join forces after the election only confirms a widely held notion that ideology means nothing in Albania.
Berisha and Meta have not been kind to each other over the years. Moreover it was Meta who had briefly detained Berisha some years ago. It was Meta who called on the people to vote against the Gerdec Berisha government, reminding them that Berisha was responsible for the blast in Gerdec near Tirana where 26 people were killed at an ammunition disposal factory.
They have accused each other of just about everything, from ties to organized crime to corruption and even an attempted coup d’굡t.
But when Berisha’s right-wing Democratic Party-led coalition didn’t win enough seats in parliament to vote in a new government in last month’s tight election, Berisha called on his former archrival to join his cabinet.
Meta, leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration, a splinter group of the larger Socialist Party, accepted, drawing criticism and accusations of treason from the left with other inflammatory rhetoric that had divided the Albanian leftist political spectrum since the passing of the constitutional amendments last year. They were harshly opposed by Meta who also made a hunger strike in the parliament.
Thus it has become very clear that business interests and not differing political philosophies have become the main driving force behind the parties. That trend may dismay many voters, who complain that basing their choice only on the personality traits of party leaders, and not political platforms, is a losing game.
The June 28 parliamentary elections were a clear test of its democratic maturity especially after it became a NATO member in April and later the same month also applied for candidate status in the European Union.
Some 1.56 million Albanians cast their vote, or about 51 percent, which is two percent higher than four years ago but also 160,000 more votes in concrete figures.
The Democratic Party-headed coalition, the Alliance for Change, won 70 seats, slightly ahead of the Socialist coalition’s 66 deputies and the Socialist Movement for Integration-led coalition’s four deputies.
Preliminary reports by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (ODIHR) cited political interference as a factor in delaying the vote count and criticized the electoral process at a third of the country’s voting centers.
Berisha found backing mainly in Albania’s poorest spots and countryside. His support base grew stronger with internal migrants who moved during the 1990s to the suburbs of Tirana.
The opposition has said it will start democratic protests and has also called for fresh polls. It has said it will not politically recognize the final results but still decided to be present at the new parliament in order to investigate the manipulation, or abuse of the vote, as they said.
Meanwhile Berisha has started his cabinet meetings with many inaugurations, or projects to fight poverty.
Both Rama and Berisha promised during the campaign to speed up the pace of Albania’s integration into the European Union, loosen visa regulations for those traveling to the EU, combat poverty, and increase investment. Few could tell the difference between the two parties’ programs, while any electoral promise from one camp would often be repeated by the other.
That melding has left many to wonder whom the political parties really represent.
That is not clear and it seems that does not matter to the politics, or to the politicians. What they really care for is if they can remain in or come to power.