Lubonja: I was friends with Rama the artist, he betrayed his ideas

The largest French weekly, with a center-left tendency, Le Nouvel Obs published a very long article about what it calls the Albanian mafia. Special Envoy Marie Vaton aimed to outline the creation of a new migrant detention camp in Albania, as part of an agreement between Italy and Albania.

In this article, she also quoted the publicist and writer Fatos Lubonja, whose long interview she later published on the online page of Le Nouvel Obs. You can find it in full, translated from French, below.

From Marie Vaton "Le nouvel Obs"

Fatos Lubonja is a writer and critic, born in Tirana in 1951, who lives between the capital of Albania and Pisa, in Italy. He is an important voice in the intellectual and literary scene of this small Balkan country, known for his harsh criticism of totalitarianism and his fierce fight for democracy and human rights, especially with his magazine « The Effort', founded in 1994. His work explores themes of oppression and freedom, reflecting his personal experiences as a political prisoner under the communist regime of dictator Enver Hoxha for sixteen years.

In recent years, he has also devoted himself to art through installations that are mainly inspired by his memories of his experience in captivity. He is, among other things, the author (with Ardian Isufi) of the Postbllok Memorial (or Check-Point memorial) for the communist period, located on the main boulevard of Tirana. For "Le Nouvel Obs", he analyzes the disputed agreement signed in November 2023 between Rome and Tirana for the externalization of asylum requests from Italy.

Your country, Albania, has just received the first group of displaced persons caught at sea by the Italian authorities. These sixteen men have been transferred to the Shengjin port center where their files will be examined. This is the first time that a member state of the European Union (EU) externalizes its asylum requests to a third country. Why did Tirana agree to sign this agreement in November 2023 with Giorgia Meloni?

Fatos Lubonja: The Italian Prime Minister claims that this protocol will have a prohibitive effect on candidates for emigration. I don't know if this will discourage them, but it will certainly contribute to their invisibility, since these prisons are closed to access and fully controlled by the Italian police. The only thing certain is that all this will be extremely expensive for Italy: this first transfer has cost at least 250,000 euros, which means 15,000 euros per migrant.

Duhet kuptuar se kjo marrëveshje është negociuar në fshehtësi. Në Shqipëri, askush nuk ishte në dijeni. Por, edhe sikur të ishim, nuk do të kishte ndryshuar asgjë, pasi nuk ka asnjë mënyrë për të kundërshtuar vendimet që merr qeveria. Këtu, opozita shqiptare është reduktuar në minimum. Edhe kur ajo denoncon abuzimet e kryeministrit tonë, Edi Rama, [në pushtet që nga viti 2013], regjimin e tij autoritar oligarkik dhe propagandistik, zëri i saj nuk ka peshë në skenën gjeopolitike ndërkombëtare.

Eshtë edhe më e paqartë se çfarë ka fituar Shqipëria nga kjo?

Shumë gjëra. Së pari, Shqipëria po pret që prej dhjetë vjetësh që kandidatura e saj për anëtarësim në Bashkimin Evropian të shqyrtohet. Prandaj është e qartë se kryeministri ynë Edi Rama po përpiqet të luajë rolin e nxënësit të mirë të Ballkanit duke ndihmuar Bashkimin Evropian ne problemin që ai ka me emigracionin. Ai vetë kishte folur për “solidaritetin evropian” për të justifikuar nënshkrimin e kësaj marrëveshjeje me Giorgia Melonin. Për më tepër, rastësi apo jo e kalendarit, më 15 tetor, ditën para mbërritjes së migrantëve të parë të transferuar në territorin shqiptar, Shqipëria hapi zyrtarisht në Bruksel kapitullin e parë të negociatave të saj për anëtarësim. Duhet theksuar se nuk është hera e parë që vendi ynë luan një rol në politikën migratore evropiane: në vitin 2019, ne ishim gjithashtu të parët që pranuam në territorin tonë një operacion të përbashkët të Frontex, agjencisë evropiane të kufijve dhe rojeve bregdetare, jashtë zonës së BE-së, për të forcuar menaxhimin e kufijve të saj.

Në kronikat tuaja të publikuara në media franceze si «Courrier des Balkans», ju denonconi hipokrizinë e këtij protokolli të negociuar pas shpinës të Komisionit Evropian, por që, që atëherë, është përshëndetur nga presidentja e tij, Ursula von der Leyen, si dhe nga rreth pesëmbëdhjetë vende anëtarë të BE-së, si Austria apo Danimarka, dhe më së fundi, Franca, përmes zërit të ministrit të saj të Brendshëm Bruno Retailleau.

Pikërisht. Ekziston një sistem standardesh të dyfishta që unë e denoncoj ashpër. Nga njëra anë, kemi Bashkimin Evropian që u kërkon vendeve kandidate që shpresojnë të antarësohen programe reformash për të rregulluar legjislacionin, standardet dhe praktikat e tyre, sipas vlerave demokratike të vetë Unionit.

Nga ana tjetër, BE vijon që prej vitit 2015 të lidhë partneritete financiare me vende të treta jo-demokratike si Libia, Maroku, Turqia, Tunizia për të forcuar kontrollin e flukseve migratore dhe së fundi, për të externalizuar kufijtë e saj, ndërsa mbyll sytë për shkeljet e të drejtave të njeriut që kjo shkakton.

Dhe çfarë mendoni për mbikëqyrjen nga Zyra e Lartë të Komisionerit të Kombeve të Bashkuara për Refugjatët? A nuk është kjo një garanci e mjaftueshme sipas jush?

There will be observation missions by human rights associations, especially in the first months. What worries me is their presence in the long term. This agreement is envisaged for five years. I doubt there will be any violations for such a long time. What must be understood is that Albania was not chosen by chance. We are a country without unions, without a democratic system, plagued by corruption and drug trafficking. We have passed from Enver Hoxha's dictatorship to an increasingly authoritarian oligarchic system, modeled after Vladimir Putin. For Western Europe and the United States, it is quite practical to negotiate with an authoritarian state that caters to their interests without worrying too much about what happens inside. Edi Rama's Albania is a clientelistic model where all partners are kings as long as they pay and allow him to continue his system: that of holding power in collaboration with organized crime. We have become subcontractors for the West: until now we handled your waste, now your migrants.

You yourself know Prime Minister Edi Rama well, who was one of your close friends and a member of your literary magazine "Perpjekja", founded in Tirana in 1994, three years after you got out of prison.

It is true. At that time, he had returned from Paris, where he had studied plastic arts. He had a saying: "Intellectuals seek the truth, while politicians seek votes." I was friends with him when he sought the truth. But when he became a politician, he betrayed all his ideas. He, who became famous in 2003 with an extensive artistic project that included the bright color repainting of all the facades of the center of Tirana when he was mayor, is now the founder of the destruction of all our historical monuments, which he replaces with ugly buildings and phallic towers, the construction of which serves to launder drug money. But all this, Giorgia Meloni, and before her Matteo Renzi [Prime Minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016], or Donald Trump [President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, who is seeking a new term in the White House] , his new friends, do not see them. He has fabricated an iconic character, a bit of an artist, a bit of everything, that pretends to be progressive, almost "woke" sometimes, in order to please and why not, to entertain Westerners.

This is ironic, because at the same time organized crime is thriving and more than 700,000 of the 2.8 million Albanians have fled the country to immigrate en masse to Western and Northern Europe. It reminds me of Guy Debord's prophecy: "If in a system, the illusion with its spectacular forms reaches the point where it prevails over reality, this shows that the social order is in crisis of legitimacy."/ Taken from Lapsi.al