TIRANA, Jan. 17 – Three members of the Albanian diaspora launched Tuesday a new political movement called Bleta Shqiptare (The Albanian Bee), five months before the upcoming parliamentary elections that will be held on June 18.
The founders of the movement are Shenasi Rama, a distinguished former activist from the 1990s student movement, Grid Rroji, a former United Nations employee in New York and Valentina Karanxha, a former student who participated in the anti-communist protests in the early 90s.
During the launch ceremony, the founders of the Albanian Bee presented a manifesto calling for the ‘establishment of a modern state based on the rule of law’ and urged Albanians to be more active in pushing Albania towards a better future.
Shenasi Rama who worked as a political science professor at Columbia University in New York told reporters that situation in Albania is critical. He appealed to people of Albania to get together and get the country out of the situation.
“Our country has been governed by people who have stolen and forced Albanians to immigrate. We have to stop this from happening” he said at the launch.
Grid Rroji expressed regret that three decades after the fall of Communism, Albania has failed ‘to establish itself as a successful democracy.” He criticized the existing political class for “not securing a normal dignified life for the people.”
The third founder, Valentina Karanxha addressed the launch via Skype and underlined that the Albanian Bee manifesto is a “wake up call for Albanians.”
Albanian Bee is the third political movement launched in the past 12 months. Last November, former Socialist Party MPs Ben Blushi and Mimoza Hafizi founded the a new political party called Libra.
In January, the former chairman of Albania’s Power Corporation (KESH) Gjergj Bojaxhi formed the anti-establishment party called Sfida.
In the previous parliamentary elections of June 2013, a total of 68 parties and coalitions registered at the Central Election Commission. Despite the entrance of new parties, Albania’s new political scene, served as a battleground primarily between the two main ones, which have alternated in government since the fall of Communism.
The Socialists-led coalition ‘Alliance for a European Albania’ won the 2013 parliamentary elections and 2015 local elections. The coalition comprised of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI), the Union for Human Rights Party (PBDNJ) and the Christian Democratic Party (PDK).
The opposition coalition, the ‘Alliance for Employment, Prosperity and Integration’, comprised of the Democratic Party, the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU) and the Republican Party (PR). Both coalitions ran on similar platforms, promising job creation, economic development and tax reform, and a shared vision to ‘join Europe’.
The Party for Justice, Integration and Unity (PDIU) later quit the opposition and joined forces with the ruling coalition earning several government posts.
