The ASM is not the "holy alliance", but especially not of "smelly things"

Alfred Lela

Berisha’s Allies Are a Non-Explosive Molotov. In the sense that, whether all together or separately, they do not constitute any significant rupture in Albania’s political landscape. However, politics operates within the realm of what is possible, never in the ideal. Even if you search deep within the core of those known as classical revolutions—whether the American, Russian, or French—you will find heroes, naïve idealists, fools, delusional figures, unscrupulous individuals, and even outright idiots.

What you will not find in Berisha’s coalition, however, are drug traffickers and deeply corrupt figures—the kind that Mustafa Nano, almost prophetically, summed up in the descriptive phrase "the alliance of scoundrels."

All of them (still!) remain on Rama’s side.

Thus, the thin-lipped commentators hopping from one TV screen to another for the past week, nitpicking and feigning disgust over Berisha’s "grand coalition," are being dishonest with the facts, hiding reality behind the euro-curtain of their own financial and political interests.

Of course, journalists whose spouses have received millions from the Renaissance funds will invite Jenisheri and others in an effort to mock Berisha and his allies.

They may sneer at the opposition coalition, but they do not have the right to play the moral superior, as if on the other side, on the Rushmore Mountain of Albania’s national classics, sit the figures of Hamilton, Jefferson, and Roosevelt.

Any Albanian without personal or political investment in the Renaissance would immediately and without hesitation arrive at a basic conclusion: Berisha’s 25 allies may not be extraordinary, but they are certainly fewer in number and far less corrupt than Rama’s gang, which now fills the cells of prisons and detention centers. There, you’ll find them all: MPs, mayors, ministers, and all kinds of officials.

Some of the ASHM allies may be labeled as delusional or insignificant—party leaders with official seals but without an electorate—but they are not embezzlers of millions in taxpayers' money, not responsible for driving Albanians into emigration, and not names that appear in criminal wiretaps and case files tied to the Renaissance.

They may receive few votes, but they do not steal many votes.

Not to mention that the very same self-righteous critics—who today sneer at Berisha’s allies—had no problem turning a blind eye when they needed a fluid alliance with these same figures back when Basha boycotted parliament. They enjoyed the political "loopholes" they could exploit with the same people they now call "laughable."

To spend all day shouting “Berisha, the owl, the owl!” and focusing on Jenisheri or Gjuzi is a clear sign that, rather than having something to expose, you have something to hide.

Rama represents a curiosity in political textbooks with his futuristic narrative: instead of talking about the 12 years he has governed, he speaks about the extra 4 years he seeks to govern. He does not talk about the three terms he had to lead Albania into the EU but about the dream of entering Europe.

Thirty-three years later, 27 of which he has been in power, Edi Rama still behaves as if he were a student or professor from 1991, chanting the naïve-idealistic slogan: “We want Albania to be like the rest of Europe!”

The question that truly matters today is: What has Rama done in these past 12 years? Not whether Berisha’s 25 allies will accomplish anything.

We already know the answer to that: they won’t accomplish much! But they are not being asked to do much either. That is the responsibility of the main party in the coalition, the Democratic Party. A comparison between the 2005-2009 period under the DP and the 2013-2025 period under the Renaissance would be enough to understand that when you have no achievements and no program, you resort to ChatGPT and search for a swamp owl to use as a campaign mascot and a mask to cover up your lack of accomplishments and vision.