In a lengthy public reaction, Zela not only expresses understanding for the protest and demands of the youth, but also issues strong accusations against Edi Rama’s government, describing it as an autocracy that has strayed from the values and ideals on which the Albanian left was built.
The civic protest that has entered its fourth week is not only producing tensions between the government and the protesters. It is also opening more and more cracks within the left-wing family. After the critical statements of Arta Dade and Arben Malaj, Ermelinda Meksi and the positions of former minister Ditmir Bushati, another well-known name in the history of the Socialist Party has come out openly against Edi Rama’s political course.
This is Ilir Zela, founder and first president of FRESSH, former socialist MP and one of the figures of the generation that built the Socialist Party after the ’90s. In a long public reaction, Zela not only expresses understanding for the protest and the demands of the young people, but also makes strong accusations against the government of Edi Rama, describing it as an autocracy that has strayed from the values and ideals on which the Albanian left was built.
According to him, the protesters are right to demand a more democratic and functional system, while honest socialists should reflect on the way the Socialist Party has transformed in recent years. Zela goes even further, when he declares that Edi Rama owes the socialists an apology and that the time has come for him to open his arms.
Below is Ilir Zela’s full reaction:
A significant part of Albanian youth is protesting these days in the streets of Tirana. Their demands for a democratic and functional political system among Albanians are fundamentally right! The Socialists embodied these aspirations in the Constitution of ’98. The Socialists resisted the fascism in power in 1992-1997. They stabilized the country after the crisis of ’97, opened the shattered perspective of unification with Europe, contributed to the liberation of Kosovo and undertook the justice reform in 2015. There is a parallel between the Spirit of the Socialists embodied in these contributions and the aspirations of the young people in this protest. But unfortunately, the medal has another side. It is today’s autocracy that has moved away from the aspirations of Albanians! It is the enriched, fat and over-aged rebirthers in power, the bearers of corruption and amalgamation with crime who are the object of this protest, as they are also the subject of SPAK. I have seen socialists these days participating in protests, demonstrating their concern for the state that democracy in the country has fallen into. I have also seen several other socialists who have echoed the panicked articulations of the autocratic prime minister.
The socialists’ relationship with the protest has prompted me to ask the question: have all socialists been reduced to clones of SPAK subjects, victims of the oligarchy? I would like the youth revolt to be an opportunity for socialists to rediscover their party, which has been taken over by the concrete trust, to understand that the sacrifice of internal democracy in the name of false unity was essentially a usurpation of power by a person or a group with no connection to the real socialists, the soundest part of whom never trusted Edi Rama, but at the same time generously supported him. The protest is also an opportunity for those socialists, who believed in the Renaissance without linking this belief to the permission of towers and other concrete monsters or the benefits of charlatans, to manage their disappointment and understand that the homeland, forests and pastures, the coast, beaches and fields are more important than a job in the administration, a flurry of signatures in the halls of institutions that have been removed from constitutional function, or a momentary benefit from the corrupt system of autocratic power.
When I see socialists of contributions in protest, I wonder if it makes sense to tell these people that the usurpation of their will has driven 1 million Albanians from our country, has contributed to the arrogance of power and the weakening of accountability. They know this and that is why they protest! Socialists see that today’s armchair gluttons are older and much fatter than the blockmen of the latest generation of the Hoxha regime. Socialists know that the time has come for a new generation to rediscover the best values of the left and modestly seek to participate in the leadership of the homeland. But being a socialist and going to protest means that you have given up on the effort to liberate politics, you do not believe in the possibility that a new leadership for socialists, but also for all other political alternatives, can be realized through processes of internal democracy. The place of protest for socialists should be, first and foremost, the Socialist Party itself. The Socialists must rediscover themselves, deliver to justice all the renaissance people that they have been seeking for a long time. To become one without further hesitation with the aspirations of Albanians for a state, justice, dignity and union with Europe!
READ MORE Citizens’ protest! The warning reaction of the European Union is coming: At the end of June…
Is there really a possibility for a new path based on collegiality despite arrogance, based on legitimacy despite the alliance with corruption, monopolies and crime, based on competition and elections against the usurping behavior according to which elections are good until I occupy the head, then elections are bad for me to reign? Are there any socialists who saw the end of the path of autocratic leadership the day when 81 of their 83 mandates were used to protect the inviolability of corruption at the top of the government without accountability? Are there any socialists who believe in accountability, change and renewal?
Anyone who has been involved in the theft in these years, who has allowed corruption or has relativized it, must open their arms, must open the way, by asking for a deep and profound apology from all socialists! To leave no doubt, the greatest apology must be asked by Edi Rama, who in 2005 pleaded for internal democracy, one member one vote and for the fight against corruption. Although he was generously supported by the entire structure of the Socialist Party, he never managed to become a socialist but simply saw the socialists as a barn of votes, putting them in the trap of choosing between him and Saliu. Edi Rama must apologize for all his contradictions at the head of the SP and the government, from the criminalization of the composition of the Assembly to the appointments of villains in the government, from the destruction of the concept of the state to the departure of more than 1 million Albanians from the country, from the delays in the implementation of the justice reform to the obstruction of justice through the political protection of SPAK subjects. Now the masks have fallen and Edi Rama owes the socialists his resignation, to clear the way. If he does not do so, the socialists cannot jump with him into the abyss into which he is dragging them, they will know how to choose another path!
If there is a thread of gratitude in Edi Rama’s being, it is time to show it. He has been prime minister for 13 years with the votes of the socialists. No power can be eternal! The hesitation to pave the way for change now risks leaving Dritëro Agolli’s party as a beautiful memory of a distant past, most likely without members and without voters. Either the PS changes course now, or a new left, warned by some of its most vocal intellectuals, will rise as an essential political alternative. The experiment and practice of autocracy have ended in failure, ugliness, theft and ridicule. It is time for democracy!
As the founder and first Chairman of FRESSH, as a member of the Socialist Party since 1992, as its deputy elected twice by direct vote, as an elected member of its highest leadership forums at a time when elections were real, I would like to believe in the ordinary people of the generous left. I would like to see them end their support for evil, especially when it has poisoned a part of their soul! I would like to see them return their party to where it belongs, in the groove of the aspirations of Albanians for freedom, peace, equality, dignity and national unity! I hope that as soon as possible, the best representatives of youth who understand Generation Z, not the clones of the occupation, will come to the forefront of the left and contribute with a new mindset for an Albania that must definitely close the transition and rank with the Western democracies as a member of the EU and not return back under occupation!