It was the best of the times, it was the worst of the times…
As a dream team of qualified and spirited soccer players made way forward in a beautiful game, their fans cheered and danced and threw a large open air party for half of France to enjoy. A country that often captured headlines for the worst (asylum seekers, gang fights, mafia lords, criminal MPs) was now praised for both the game and its wonderful fans. Global online media was now celebrating, praising and applauding Albania and Albanians in a refreshing change of tide.
Back at home, while the Prime Minister was calling the national team players and offering them diplomatic passports (!), things were delusional. The Police chief had re-assumed its public office after being ceremonially suspended for allegations of severe abuse of power. The High Council of Justice had sued the Minister of Interior Affairs, subsequently the Attorney general was investigating him. The President of the Republic was back at fighting the capital’s mayor for the soccer fanzone noise, only to launch a competing one within the Presidency. The leader of the opposition was threatening, thankfully just in a metaphoric way, to ‘set the Parliament on fire.’ The justice reform seemed at the same time both likely and very unlikely as the frenzy of ambassadors and the respective hypocrisy of local politicians continued to reach unparalleled peaks.
But the people did not care. They were tired of all of the same so they stuck with the large screens, conveniently provided in many squares, cheap beers and a sense of forgetfulness. They sought and found consolation, courage and hope in the game. Maybe it was not so bad to be Albanian after all, maybe this life was not so sad. Maybe you could still be a winner…Albanians could be European despite the political fight threatening to erase any chance of the start of accession negotiations happening this year.
As both these countries waked parallel and oblivious to each other in the first hot days of summer, the realities of hope and hopelessness interchanged between morning and evening.
Albania was winning in the green field. Albania was losing elsewhere.
It would be funny, if it were just a fictional story.
