For those who have some knowledge about the Democratic Party, it is very clear that the lists of candidates for deputy have never been discussed in the party forums, even formally. Topalli, Bodi, Imami, and Patozi were always present in Berisha’s office, to give a final opinion on the chosen names. This foursome, together with Majlinda Bregu, were not only tremendously unhappy with the list of candidates but also with the way Lulzim Basha is leading the PD. Some of their claims stand, like the avoidance of the presidium at the time of selectiong of the candidate names took place (at least Berisha would read the names at the presidium meeting); also, the fact that some of the chosen names are people without any contribution or profile that represents democratic values. If we tried a little more, we would find many more reasons to criticize Basha’s leadership in the past several years.
Bu, was this the right moment, and can those who have been considered the main figures of the PD request the departure of their leader during the electoral campaign, as a final act in the end of a political party? If his leadership was so wrong, why did they have to wait for the beginning of the campaign to go against him and what’s more, in a group? Even the most naive person can understand that the frustration that has united these six high PD figures at a round table is greater than the vexations they have harbored amongst themselves.
Topalli and Bregu, considered to be the strongest women in the PD who struggle to get the attention of Berisha, Imami, Bode, as well as Patozi, who was the only one out of the six that supported the late Sokol Olldashi for the leadership of the party against Basha. All of them have held leading positions during the eight years of Berisha government, and became richer than they were in 2005, when the party entered government. Today, they are rebelling against Lulzim Basha and asking his removal as leader of the party. And they might be right, because for the first time since Berisha chose them as close collaborators who didn’t have to go through a race or party forums in order to keep their positions, they feel excluded from the party, where they thought they would be able to spend their whole political careers.
It seems that they must have miscalculated, someone has maybe misled them, until last minute assuring them that they will be part of the list and then at the end the disappointment resulted in a fierce reaction. Their biggest frustration is they did not expect that Basha would act like Berisha when he was creating his list of deputies, full with personal preferences of friends. The ones who are angry with Basha did not expect that Berisha’s preferred list would figure also the one person who would dismiss them from their party. At the end of the day, it was the party of Sali Berisha, no matter how collegial was its decision making, better than anyone, the people who were united today knew that each decision was exclusively the party’s leader’s own. When the leader has changed, it is unreasonable to be unsatisfied with the new rules of the game.
If they followed Berisha’s rules, where names were approved or removed without a collegial agreement, people were fired or took leave after “annoying” conversations in his office, they must have expected that Basha will end it like this. They never raised their voices when other people of importance were unceremoniously let go from DP, when the list of deputies was created using the same standards as today, when ministers and important executives got their job positions based on the Prinme Minister’s family whims and caprices.
In the aforementioned cases, all six of them either remained silent or in the worst-case scenario were happy to have one less rival in the party. They didn’t expect that one day everything would go against them, maybe unfairly so. They possessed no principles to ask for Basha’s loyalty when the rules of the game were violated before. However, at this moment, their rebellion and anger is rather understandable, while Berisha’s silence is louder then any rancor expressed against Lulzim Basha. At the end, dismissing the very people he worked with to govern Albania for nearly eight years, is maybe the biggest blow for the historical leader of PD.
He finds himself a stranger in the party that he built and had in his grip for twenty years. Out of all, he must be the most disappointed by Basha’s lists. Due to this fact, he is behaving differently than usual and remaining silent. Doubting that his future presence in parliament, besides Basha’s people, would be fitting, like a scene of a comedy stage.
