By Skender Minxhozi
There were two paths after returning from America. To go to the Assembly and start work on building an alternative grouping to Berisha and Basha, or to lower his head and join the small amorphous crowd that listens to the Doctor’s psalms from the window of the house every night. Gazmend Bardhi made a clear choice: he knelt before the Doctor in the famous alley. He gave you the temptation to grab a parliamentary mandate in the next parliament and to conform to the collective stupidity of the Re-establishment, instead of entering the difficult path of getting the DP out of the pit where it has fallen at the hands of Sali Berisha and of his successor Basha.
It is good that there is now more clarity on the right, and less confusion and hiding behind the finger. Gazmend Bardhi was one of the main smoke detectors regarding the attitude towards the crisis in his party. He was and is one of the important people in the scattered mosaic of the right for circumstantial reasons more than for tangible motives. He started the war with the chairs of the Assembly on the day when Berisha was announced in the investigation and his son-in-law was arrested in Rinas, and yet he stubbornly preached an independence from Berisha that seemed from afar to be fake and pretend. By going to Canossa, to Berisha’s alley, he did the right thing to give the right message to thousands of democrats who no longer know who to believe and who to follow. He took sides and lined up, and this is a good thing for the crisis as it removes from the table the ambiguities and fog of one of the current protagonists of the right.
Since the fall of 2021, when Berisha launched Foltore, the Democratic Party has suffered a rift which has created an unprecedented confusion within the opposition. In the last six months, Gazmend Bardhi has tried to gather the messy cadre of “middle” deputies, to bring them gently and noiselessly into Berisha’s lap. He managed to create a swelling of the ranks of the Reestablishment parliamentary group, making the political game difficult for Lulzim Basha. But at the same time he managed to create a dualism of behavior and attitudes between Berisha and the USA, which the more time passes, the more false and pretended it seems. Gazmend Bardhi has repeated many times in the last hours after returning from the USA, among his colleagues his, that the Americans severely hit the socialists within the parliamentary delegation, for what he believed was the use that the SP is making of Berisha’s non grata status. These words that Bardhi brought from Washington may have strengthened his conviction that only with Berisha he can have the means and the means to stay in active politics. Starting from the mandate of the deputy, which the Doctor would give him with great pleasure, in exchange for Bardhi’s presence in every war of chairs and fireworks in the Parliament and the media. He needs Gazmend Bardhi because he is not old like Tritan Shehu, a disguised militant like Flamur Noka or a declared servile like many others around.
However, these latter, supporters of Berisha, are much more honest in their political behavior than Gazmend Bardhi. They put nostalgia as a guide on their way to the “revolution” in the alley, and they don’t want to know about the USA or SPAK. They publicly wave their adoration for the Doctor and contempt for anyone who tries to oppose them.
On the other hand, Gazmend Bardhi pretends that he has nothing in common with Berisha except for the smoke of the stack of chairs in the Assembly, selling empty praise for the Americans and the new justice. His oratory goes towards Elbasan Street, but his behavior goes towards Berisha Street. Just like he himself, when he came down with a cell phone in his hand under Berisha’s window, he seems to have tried to leave as if he had shot there by accident and was not listening to Berisha’s rants against Duman and Soros.
It’s good that Gaz Bardhi finally chose a pair. Because the worst in this battle where the present and the future of all Albanian politics (not only the opposition) are played, are those of the “neither meat nor fish” type. And Gaz Bardhi has been like this for years. At least he is finally starting to choose, giving those who invited him to Washington the opportunity to be more clear.
