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The idea that Edi Rama has installed a "regime" in Albania has long been created in the opposition.
Although everyone uses it and no one defines it, the term regime is used as a synonym for dictatorship or authoritarian system. This is clear from the fact that in our lexicon, the term "regime" has historically been used in three cases; Zogist, fascist and communist regime. All three were undemocratic regimes.
Therefore, it is not by chance that Rama is compared to Erdogan and Putin in our media.
It does not matter that well-known analysts and journalists attack the Prime Minister day and night on the main screens and newspapers, and there is no thorn on their side. Very different from their fellow journalists in Turkey or Russia, where a critique of Erdogan or Putin leads to jail or grave.
In addition to being extremely inaccurate, this characterization of Rama's government as a dictatorship produces three negative effects.
First, ignoring the real problems of current governance, such as the degradation of public administration. Second, the search for anti-democratic ways to "overthrow" Rama. Third, the lack of opposition reform. The fight against Rama's imaginary dictatorship not only ignores but also delegitimizes the real criticism that may be leveled at his government such as the degradation of public administration.
Although 8 years ago the Socialists promised to make a state, today we are still far from this goal. The bureaucracy, which is the soul of the state, as well as employment in the public sector in general, is far from being meritocratic.
This fundamental problem of the Albanian state seems almost insignificant in the face of the war and against the "dictatorship" Rama. But if it can be clearly shown that Albania today has a major problem with the degradation of the administration and the public sector, it is impossible to argue that we are in Putinism or Erdoganism.
Even Rama's government does not reach the levels of Viktor Orban's authoritarianism in Hungary, in the heart of Europe. Therefore, the opposition criticism legitimizes Rama's government when it hits its imaginary problems and not the real ones.
This produces solutions as poor as they are undemocratic, based on the violent overthrow of the "Rama dictatorship", which cannot be changed by a vote. Therefore, on the opposition side, there are calls for non-participation in the elections, withdrawal from the system, and protests. What surprises you is that the idea that Rama is not overthrown by vote is based simply on the electoral failure of the current opposition.
So, the fact that Basha, Berisha, and Meta did not win the majority of votes in the 2021 elections, proves that there are no free elections in Albania.
But to say that there are no free elections in Albania today because most Albanians do not want to be governed by the same PD-LSI alliance and the same faces who were penalized in the free elections of 2013, is both absurd and problematic.
According to this logic, the problem is not the opposition, but the elections. So we have to maintain the opposition we have and replace elections with revolution. This kind of argument kills two birds with one stone.
Eliminates the need to reform the opposition and legitimizes elections as a mechanism for the rotation of power. Without these two birds, democracy in Albania will always drag on and never rise from the ground.