Former Foreign Minister and current Socialist Party MP, Elisa Spiropali, publicly calls for a new agreement for Albania and speaks of a change of power.
“Albania has entered a moment where it does not need to prove that it wants to move forward. It has proven this. It needs to show that it knows how to build a state that functions even when power changes, even when interests clash, even when no one notices,” she writes.
This is the first time Spiropali has spoken about Rama’s departure as prime minister, since he dismissed her as minister a few months ago.
But this is also her third outing against Rama, which poses a challenge to the prime minister as to whether he will tolerate Spiropali any longer. A few weeks ago, when asked about his MP’s statements, Rama said that twice in a row she had “stepped out of line” and warned that if this happened a third time, Spiropali’s political future would be in the hands of his decisions.
A New Agreement for Albania
By Elisa Spiropali
I was a child when, through the whispers of family members and the gossip of relatives, I learned that something incredible, but true, had happened in Skanderbeg Square.
Later I realized that something extraordinary that until that day could not even be dreamed of was a stubborn fact, a tangible reality, a “heresy” that no one was allowed to even dream of: it was a spontaneous and silent protest of the citizens of Tirana against the dictatorial regime of that time.
The noisy and creative protests of these days, compared to the silent protests of that time, are not psychological slips, they are not déjà vu, they are not cerebral aberrations. They are facts so different and similar that in their time and circumstances, each has its own importance and effects, to draw the respective lessons, and, as such, must be examined with the seriousness and responsibility they deserve.
What’s done cannot be undone. What’s done cannot be undone, says Lady Macbeth in the sleepwalking scene with a candle in her hand.
It’s easy to surround today’s protests with empty talk, conspiracies, and barren speculation: What crime did Lady Macbeth commit, why did she lose sleep, why did she wake up at night sleepwalking, why did she hold a candle in her hand?
Now that all the murderous Macbeths and suspicious Hamlets have come out and entered the play, now that the murder has been done, the blood has been shed, the consciences have been shaken, the sleep has been broken, what else is there to be done? Not just anything. Something Shakespearean. Something lasting. Something that is done cannot be undone.
Fortunately, this question has an answer.
What needs to be done today is a new agreement for Albania.
Every era has its own fundamental question. For many years, Albania’s question was how to build a state. Today, the question is different. How to make the state bigger than the government and the institution stronger than the one who exercises power. This is where the need for a new agreement for Albania begins.
Albania has now entered a phase in its history where the biggest challenge is no longer building power. Power has been built. Institutions exist. Administration exists. Laws exist. The economy is stronger than ever. Democracy is more consolidated than in the early years of transition. Albania has increased its reputation in the world and must protect its name at all costs. The challenge of our time is something else. It is the ability of power to set boundaries within itself.
For more than thirty years, Albania has lived with the anxiety of lack. Institutions were lacking. Roads were lacking. Investments were lacking. Security was lacking. The state was lacking. Entire generations grew up with the conviction that the country’s main problem was, if not the absence of a state, then the weakness of the state.
Today, for the first time, we are faced with another question. What happens when power becomes stronger than the mechanisms of that same state that are supposed to control it? What happens when administrative problems increase faster than accountability. What happens when stability begins to be confused with unrelated, unaddressed causes and consequences.
This is why Albania needs a new agreement with itself.
An agreement where the strength of the state is not measured only by what it builds, but also by the diminishing ability to control, or what it consciously agrees not to control. An agreement where the institutions that oversee power are as capable as, and more capable than, the power itself.
An agreement where parliament is not just a place where decisions are made, but a place where society is heard.
An agreement where the parliamentary republic exercises all its representative, controlling, and monitoring functions, because democracy weakens whenever a power grows faster than the control over it.
At the heart of this agreement lies a simple idea. No one is above the law and no one is under the law. All three powers must remain within their constitutional limits. Justice must have the power to investigate and judge. Parliament must have the power to control. The government must have the power to govern. But no one should take the power of the other. Because that is where the deformation of the state begins.
A democratic society is not measured only by the government it has. It is also measured by the opposition it produces. The opposition is not an accident of the system. It is not an obstacle to development. It is not a problem for stability. The opposition is the sense that warns when the government loses touch with reality. Societies that lose oppositionism do not only lose debate. They lose the ability to correct themselves.
That is why Albania needs more competition, not less. It needs a new electoral system that produces real representation and not just the reproduction of existing elites. It needs elections where citizens feel that their vote changes balances, and not just statistics. It needs a political culture where rotation is not seen as a catastrophe and victory is not seen as ownership.
Equally important is media freedom. Because there is no strong democracy with unreliable media. There is no free citizen without free information. There is no control over power when information becomes dependent on power or disinformation. Albania needs a public space where journalists do not need permission to ask questions and where the media does not need favors to survive.
In the same way, the relationship between economy and politics must change. The coming years will not be won by the one who has the most assets. They will be won by the one who has the most knowledge. By the one who has the most technology. By the one who has the most ideas. Albania cannot remain a country where proximity to power is worth more than the ability to create value. A modern economy begins the moment when the one who produces better and cheaper wins, and not the one who is favored by power.
This is directly related to the new generation. Albania no longer has the luxury of losing its most capable people. Competition, merit, opportunity, and not control, are the essence of change. Every young person who leaves does not take with them just a job. They take with them energy, knowledge, creativity, and a future. The country needs to create conditions where mind, work, and talent have more value than connection, interference, inventory, or privilege.
Equally crucial is the quality of public services. Education cannot continue to be treated as an administrative sector. It is the factory where the future of the country is produced. It is the essence of everything that surrounds us, in the present and in the future. Health cannot be measured only by investment figures, buildings, equipment, etc. It is measured by the security that citizens feel when they need it. A modern state is not built only with mortar and bricks. It is built with knowledge, health, trust and dignity.
This is where the battle against corruption begins. Not just in courtrooms. Not just in investigative files. But in the everyday culture of the state. Corruption is the ingrained belief that the rule can be circumvented without consequences. That the law can be negotiated. That power can be used as a privilege. That abuse can be normalized and glorified. The fight against it is above all a moral battle for the way we understand the state.
Albania has entered a moment where it does not need to prove that it wants to move forward. It has proven this. It needs to show that it knows how to build a state that functions even when power changes, even when interests clash, even when no one notices.
A country does not become European when it convinces others of what it is European. It becomes European when its citizens feel protected by law, respected by the state, free to build their lives without asking permission from anyone.
This is the new agreement that Albania must implement within itself.