From Fatos Lubonja
The Italian Democratic Party reacted strongly to the Meloni-Rama agreement for bringing to Albania immigrants caught in the waters of the Mediterranean; and not only towards Meloni, but also towards the Albanian Socialist Party. He went so far as to declare that he would propose her exclusion from the European socialist family since Edi Rama and his ilk do not represent the values of the European left.
But did the Italian left revolt so much after finding out, surprised, what “values” the Albanian Socialist Party actually defends, or did it react as a function of the internal struggle for power? This question is raised after Edi Rama and his party have been in power for ten years and it seems impossible that the sister of a partner country so close to Albania is not aware of what is happening in Albania led by Albanian socialists.
How is it possible that the Italian left – including the journalists close to it – do not know that during Rama’s ten years in power, which coincide with most of the time when the Italian Democratic Party was in power, at least 2.8 million people fled Albania 700,000 inhabitants?
A few more questions
How is it possible that no one in Italy has heard the warnings of the most famous Italian prosecutor Nicola Grateri about the connections of the Albanian mafia with politics in Albania; that in his team’s eavesdropping on Ndragheta’s exponents, they are heard saying: Albania today is like Calabria in the 60s, so we should go there to invest.
How is it possible that important Italian newspapers, which today criticize Rama for the agreement with Meloni, until yesterday have advertised the modernization transformations of the Albanian capital without ever turning their heads to see that, in collaboration with prominent Italian studios, this has destroyed the historic center for erected skyscrapers in which the Albanian mafia and Ndrageta recycle dirty money in the sunlight?
How is it possible that the Italians (in this case especially the left) have not read or heard that Rama insisted on their left-wing Prime Minister Mateo Renzi, with whom he had as warm a relationship as he has today with the right-wing Meloni, who to push Italian businessmen to invest in Albania, where “there are no trade unions to tear them apart”.
And, more generally, it seems impossible that Italian politicians and journalists do not yet know that in Albania, as in Serbia and elsewhere, it does not make sense to talk about left and right parties, but about party-states that the more they stay in power, the more votes they win thanks to the capture of all powers, including that of organized crime?
Are they all “naive”?
Following the reactions of Athens after the arrest two days before the local elections of the Greek minority candidate Beleri, one cannot help but bring to mind similar questions for Greek politicians and journalists: How is it possible that only after the brutal act against the Greek minority candidate, Greece is discovers that there is an authoritarian regime in Albania, which collaborates with organized crime to rob Albanian citizens and where human rights are violated openly, with arrogance?
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini tries to answer these questions indirectly in an article dated December 15, 2023. I say indirectly because the article does not touch on the warm relations that the Greek prime ministers had with Rama before this event, but deals with Berlin’s statement against Athens’ veto against the opening of Albania’s negotiations with the EU due to the Beleri case. According to her, Washington, London and Berlin cannot understand that the new Albanian justice system, which they promote as “the most successful example of reform in the Western Balkans”, is “becoming a political instrument” in Rama’s hands. According to Kathimerini, this happens because, due to their “naivety”, they have invested millions of euros and dollars in this reform. The newspaper does not say, however, that Greece was also in these positions of naivety until yesterday.
In fact, the argument that the Westerners, led by the USA, have good intentions, but cannot understand the reality of these countries, circulates even within these countries. In Albania, the opposition, even when it denounces the use of reform by Rama, or its propaganda operations, lobbying, but also corruption in Italy, Greece, the UK, the USA and elsewhere, is always careful to treat these partners as misinformed or naive , but never as collaborators with evil.
Duplicity behind the showcase of “values”
In fact, there are many stories of Western investments that have failed or fallen into the wrong hands – Afghanistan is one of the last – but it is naive to believe that these are done out of naivety. All the more so if you consider that, in the Albanian case, the failure of the reform in Justice has been talked about in European circles since a few years ago when EU emissaries advised both Kosovo and Macedonia not to apply the reform that was made in Albania as it it has opened more problems than it has solved.
Without denying that naivety, manipulation, and even corruption play a role in these stories – where Rama’s corruption of senior FBI official Mac Gonical stands out in order to open a trial in the US against the leader of the opposition – I think that anyway we get much closer to the truth if we stop treating the West’s relations with countries like Albania through an Orientalist approach that makes us see good, rational and just Westerners who seek to emancipate the evil, irrational, unjust Eastern thieves. These 30 years have clearly shown even in the countries of the former East, which have believed more strongly than others in the sincere commitment of the West in building democracy and the rule of law in these countries, that behind the facade of this commitment there have been vested interests economic and geopolitical forces, declared and undeclared, that have imposed on Western policies the application of double language and double standards.
The “pattern” of refugee diversion
A fresh example of these policies is the “innovative model” of diversion to Albanian camps of emigrants aiming for EU countries. In Italy, on the one hand, this model is advertised by Meloni as a way to bring Albania closer to the European family, and, on the other hand, it is explained by its people in the media as a deterrence strategy, i.e. fear of immigrants with Albania. The validity of this model was also reinforced by the sister of the Italian DP, the German social democratic party with Chancellor Scholtz who hastened to declare that the Germans see the Rama-Meloni model with great interest. They are the same Germans for whom Katherimini says that, after the war in Ukraine, they strongly moved to the camp of those who want a quick and immediate integration of Albania into the EU, while until yesterday they wanted to add other conditions because Albania was far from the standards. The irony is that according to the Greek newspaper, until yesterday – that is, before the Beleri case – it was Greece that was trying to explain through its two foreign ministers to the Germans, the French and the Dutch why “it is essential to advance the EU membership process for Albania and North Macedonia”.
As if to fill the cup of the use of language and double standards, the Western reaction to the manipulation of the elections in Serbia by the autocrat Aleksandër Vucic, until yesterday their pet, did not delay. It is clear that the silence of the West towards the complaints of the Serbian opposition, which for years has left the parliament in protest and which today is accusing the West of supporting authoritarianism in Serbia, was not broken because there are no free elections there, but to blackmail Vučić who is not distancing himself from Russia.
Westerners should be ashamed
Rama reacted to the Italian left’s idea of exclusion from the socialist family by saying that if in Italy the agreement is opposed by the left, in Albania the right opposes it, which shows that perhaps it is simply right. After the statement of the social democrat Scholtz, he no longer needed to discuss this topic, but hurried to go to Germany to participate in the meeting of the parliamentary group of the right-wing Bavarian party CSU, where the state prime minister, the chairman of this party, encouraged the application of the Albanian-Italian model for refugees.
In fact, contrary to what Edi Rama says, this agreement should be considered unfair according to the values of the European left and right, as it is in violation of human rights. Not only that, but both European leftists and rightists should be ashamed to solve an issue like that of immigrants in a poor country like Albania or to use Albania as a deterrent. But it seems clear that they will continue to use double language and double standards by propagandizing the progress of countries like Albania in achieving democratic standards and, at the same time, supporting their autocrats as the easiest way to solve problems. own.
One might say that this story is not new; that the human rights card has always been used by the West as a trump card in its geopolitical games. Maybe, but not at these levels. Not since the beginning of the post-World War II era has the West known such a crisis of credibility and legitimacy.
*Published in the Greek newspaper “Dromos”, February 3, 2024. Original title: Albania reflects the West’s credibility crisis
