"Sali is to blame", from an electoral slogan to a persecution strategy

Alfred Lela

In the spring of 2013, Edi Rama and the Socialist Party started circulating the slogan "Sali [Berisha] is to blame." The foreign advisers had devised a two-way campaign where the SP was renamed as "Renaissance" - to be installed after the overthrow of the two term Prime Minister Berisha.

Of course, campaign slogans are 'innocent,' even when they are more aggressive or manipulative than necessary. The slogan became exaggerated when, year after year, even though Sali Berisha had resigned from the leadership of the party, acting only as MP and the cruel host of a Facebook page where the "digital citizen" wreaked havoc with denunciations, socialists appeared again in media debates and, without a sign of shameless courage declared "Sali is to blame." Thus, the slogan left the electoral campaign and its role and became something else. It became the paradigm of a campaign of political persecution with the aim of character assassination of Sali Berisha and, in the finale, his removal from the scene by all means.

This is when a slogan is more than a campaign slogan and becomes a clear political strategy to change a country's opposition via deus ex machina.

The media accusations became the background of a more programmatic and sinister attempt to target Mr. Berisha, not only as a synonym for the evils of the past but as an obstacle to the country's future. The events should be seen in retrospect to dispel the fog of surprise of foreign diplomats in Tirana who fell silent in the face of numerous scandals of the "Rama government." Cannabis plantations were hailed as a war on drugs, corruption as a battle for its undoing, the violation of human rights as a reform, and so on.

The increasing presence of the Open Society Foundation, its plan on justice reform and territorial exchanges in Kosovo, the materialized idea of ​​the Open Balkans, etc., saw Sali Berisha almost alone in the face of a transnational conspiracy.

Edi Rama announced the non-grata designation of Sali Berisha in the Parliament of Albania months before it happened. The same is true of Great Britain. The governments of the partner countries served the Prime Minister of Albania with information against the political opponent, which he could use to color the slogan "Sali is to blame," which is in bad geopolitical taste.

In later news, taste and codes were utterly lacking. Still, the homo corrupts that the internationals supported in Edi Rama and his henchman were revealed widely and deeply. The McGonigal file exposed the banal essence of the orchestrated attack on the Democratic Party and Sali Berisha. Lulzim Basha was there only as an accessory to the plan. If we have coercive material for him, then he will have to choose between his political father, the Democrats, and his head.

Luli surrendered, but not Sali. This non-surrender also blows up the longest-lived slogan (perhaps) in the world's political history: "Sali is to blame" because, as a rule, the one who is guilty surrenders and withdraws; he does not fight in the presence of guilt.

The American and British non-grata helped Basha and Rama to sing the tiresome and hypocritical refrain that they were the Euro-Atlantic crusaders in this country. Still, they did not lessen the political nerve of Berisha or number of his supporters.

In two elections, Sali Berisha proved to be the head of the country's second most influential political force, covering his successor and predecessor as the leader of the Democratic Party with shame.

Under these conditions, "Sali is to blame" had to be redesigned, or more precisely, the blame had to walk up to Sali since Sali refused to walk up to blame. For this action phase, SPAK was set in motion. It is one of the new justice institutions whose platform (don't forget!) was drawn up and presented in Tirana by the "Soros Foundation."

Sali Berisha could be fitted to the expression of Giulio Andreotti, "They accuse me of everything in Italy, except the Punic Wars." Still, among the accusations, the three most central were '97, Gërdeci, and January 21. To process the "guilt," however, another less addressed issue was chosen: the privatization of the "Partizani complex." Why? In terms of propaganda, "Partizani" was more 'sticky.' Sports loyalties, land, money, and other elements always constituted greed in popular mythology. Not to forget the towers. Note that the residential complex buildings close to the government were called "towers" by the media, even though they were no more than the usual nine- or 10-story buildings of any neighborhood in Tirana. In this case, the government accused of concreting Tirana with towers wanted to create the impression that Sali was to blame even for that. The evilest 'edge' of Partizan's selection probably involved including Berisha's son-in-law, Jamarbër Malltezi. This made the 'affair' a family saga and brought water to the old and inexhaustible accusations of the involvement of Berisha's family members in corrupt acts. So, SPAK's investigation met with Rama's allegations over the years and the US non-grata.

The circle of political persecution of Sali Berisha was thus completely closed. 10 years after the coming to power of the socialists, even though the DP had already governed less than the SP during the 30 years of post-communism in Albania, even though the scandals of the Rama government belong to the category of epic, the blame had to be delegated to Sali.

In this sense, the political efforts to damage the opponent through justice, Sali Berisha joins the ranks of right-wing politicians like Berlusconi and Trump.

In another sense, Sali Berisha stands alone as a humanist. In 1991-1992, when the party he led aimed for power, Sali Berisha invented and used the slogan 'we were all both persecutors and persecuted.' By that, he meant that there was no room for revenge. I don't know where Berisha got that paradigm, but its roots are Christian. Berisha presented himself as a leader whose essence was Christian mercy, so he was not alien to Europe.

In the end, as it turns out, Sali Berisha was wrong. He should have chosen the Hebrew code 'an eye for an eye.' Today, those who were more guilty than Berisha, in the system where, according to him, everyone was 'both a sufferer and accomplice,' come to declare him as the only guilty party.

Today, Sali Berisha is in this twist of fate. Yesterday's culprits of communism, dressed in today's clothes of progressives, come to tell him that he stands alone in suffering and he is the only accomplice.

Another lesson from Christianity: "No good deed goes unpunished."