What does the murder of Superman Veliaj reveal about May 11?

By Andi Bushati

Since pro-government media propaganda has been, alongside vote buying, the use of crime, and blackmailing the administration, one of the pillars that perverted the May 11 challenge, it would be interesting to look at what happened from the perspective of a character who until recently was considered the star of our screens.

We are talking about Erion Veliaj, who, since February 10, the day he was put in handcuffs, has almost disappeared from the media landscape. For him, everything has changed radically. Posts on social networks rarely produce headlines. News broadcasts have been freed from the parade of ready-made chronicles produced by the municipality. Those who were ready to be shouted at to defend him in the studios are now silent. TVs are no longer flooded with chronicles about planting trees, rebuilding schools or awarding medals in sports competitions.

But, if you look back a few months ago, it seems to you as if you have suddenly woken up from a dream. The "Lali" who entered our homes every day, with his clothes on, with warm hugs for the children, sometimes serving soup to pensioners and sometimes distributing aid to orphans, is no longer alive. The image of a superhero, who fights for good, for beauty, for honesty, has been erased like an eraser.

This drastic transformation requires an explanation. It is related to the decline of his power and authority. Ever since Edi Rama stripped him of everything, taking away his right to real command in the Municipality, ever since he left him without loyal deputies in the socialist group of the next parliament, ever since he ordered senior politicians and militants below, neither to speak out in favor of Veliaj, nor to protest at the door of SPAK in his favor, his halo crumbled. He who landed among children like a superman, on a summer day, is now nothing more than a prisoner. And this, since he no longer has a building permit in his hands, since he can no longer do favors by throwing soil to builders, since he can no longer give secret or legal advertisements to media owners, since he no longer has the power to sponsor secret payrolls of unregistered portals.

His bloated figure thanks to the power he had, the funds he controlled, the financing he provided, had nothing to do with his merits or his real ability, it was simply a product of the important position he held. When the former was removed from him, everything turned to dust and ashes.

Of course, for the sake of truth, it must be said that the abandonment that is happening to him and the political loneliness of Veliaj can also be linked to personal reasons. He never produced supporters, as everyone saw him as Rama's lackey, he could not leave followers, as the latter are looking for a "man" to lead them, his public defenders are becoming rare, as he has always built his relationship with them not on the basis of principles, but on bribery and corruption.

And yet, despite all these personal shortcomings, the conclusion of Veliaj's sad drama is that along with power, he also lost the fictional character he had worked so hard to create over the years. It is here that his trajectory is a significant clue to understanding the manipulative backdrop against which the recent elections took place.

If we imagined for a moment that we were to strip Rama and Lali's other friends of the favors they have to produce headlines, to impose ready-made chronicles, to be immune to criticism, to propagate the "tourism miracle", to build the image of the country that is lucky to be led by a global leader, surely the outcome of May 11 would be a little different.

Without the power to buy attention and sell dreams, they would become as unattractive as Veliaj has become today.

Let's be clear, this is not one of those concrete phenomena that the opposition can factify in the television series it produces every day at the headquarters of SHQUP. The impact of the image is neither weighed nor measured. But in any case, it is a real phenomenon that in democratic societies is produced by the contradiction between the ability of politicians to act and their confrontation with the critical thinking imposed by the media and all other counter-powers. Only in non-democratic systems like ours is it a pure product of the "mis en scene" of those in power alla Veliaj.

Therefore, the bursting of the bubble that the latter created is a good test to understand the conditions under which the last electoral race took place. To also understand how naked those who now consider themselves winners would look if they did not benefit from the image they have bought with the money and favors that power gives them./ Lapsi.al