Dear colleagues, now we are off to France and you to Berlin, said the Albanian Prime Minister concluding a heated speech in the Parliament regarding the major issues of the political debate last week. He was referring to his trip to see the Albanian soccer team kick the ball in their first match on Saturday. The opposition meanwhile was invited to an official meeting in Germany.
The media these days has been filled with photographs of Albanian politicians catching the plane or checking in at the Rinas airport on their way to France to watch soccer. Organizations working on local development projects have had a tough time finding mayors for their events since they had booked flights to France as well. Clusters of MPs have been spotted in VIP tribunes, taking a break from the tiring debates of the justice reform, the electoral code changes coming up and all the other important things on the to-do list. On Thursday Albanian media even speculated that the normal parliamentary meeting of this day could not happen because so many MPs were abroad. Despite the fact that Albania would not mind at all being sparred the usual Thursday brawl, the disregard for the task of representation in such dire times or the European integration of the country is arresting.
An outside observer would be justified to believe at the first glance that things are going so well in Albania on all fronts: political, social and economic, and all our lustrous leaders are calm and satisfied, so much that they can afford this mass exodus to France to follow the European Championship.
It is one thing for the rich to flaunt their wealth around and Instagram pictures of entertainment that others cannot afford. It is an entirely different thing for the entire cabinet of ministers to forego their duties and join a soccer tournament like groupies.
A reasonable amount of pride and happiness is justified and even expected from the country leaders, however when taken to the extremes this show off could be interpreted as a slap in the face of the poor, unemployed, sick and needy.
The presence of Albania in this Soccer championship is doing wonders for the image of our country. The spirited field performance of the players is earning acclamations from all over world sports media and the audience of those media is pretty high. The good showing of the Albanian National team exists despite and not because the Albanian governments wears their colors. These players in overwhelming proportion are being trained, educated and compensated fairly in free and competitive societies in Europe, very much unlike in Albania. They might not be scoring goals yet but they have scored many hearts in addition to their fans’ ones this competition.
The peaceful and festive behavior of the fans so far is also remarkably positive and in stark contrast with the fights initiated by EU member states citizens. Albanians are dancing, singing and laughing their way through France and dragging all the possible bystanders in a peaceful and joyful party.
The country politicians have nothing to add to that. They better stay home.
