By TIRANA TIMES
Almost two weeks after the ongoing hunger strike and the accompanying protests by opposition supporters and members of parliament started, as this newspaper is going to press, the situation seems hopeless – a solution is not even in sight.
About 22 Socialist members of parliament and some 180 of their supporters are on hunger strike in tents in front of the government building. More and more are being sent to hospital due to health complications.
In an escalation of the protests, opposition supporters tried to block the country’s main roads in several cities, confronting the police.
The return to radical actions like the hunger strike as a political instrument constitutes a failure of the political process, especially if you keep in mind that this hunger strike comes after another one by university students in Tirana 20 years ago led to the fall of communism.
In essence, Albania’s political class is using the same methods it used 20 years ago. It has failed to progress. It has failed to evolve.
Albania is a deeply divided country. About half its people see the strikers as pawns of an opposition leader who is trying to achieve through radical peaceful resistance what he could not achieve at the ballot box. The other half thinks the country is in a slippery slope where democracy and liberty are at risk, where elections are not free, and these protests are the only way they can make their voice heard.
As the two leaders fuel these diametrically opposed feeling that can’t lead to anything good for Albania, it is time for them to reflect. The first step toward a solution is to talk to each other, open the dialogue – get out of the trenches.
The political class needs to reach within itself and use democratic and institutional rules to talk through the crisis, finding a solution. This could be done with or without international supervision, but it is a bad omen for the country and its people if Albanians are unable to solve their problems on their own.
Dialogue cannot be reached through ultimatums either. They hurt the process and lead to radicalization. They also represent a major step back for Albania
In the words of EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan F
