Not even Lulzim Basha’s somewhat changing position on whether he will govern together with Edi Rama has not calmed down the open and almost violent conflict between the militants of the Socialist Party (PS) and the Socialist Movement for Integration (LSI). The word “alliance” does not unite the two parties even in their wildest dreams, and they are now on their final battleground, the unfriendliest confrontation ever of June 25 and ready for a final reckoning.
Edi Rama was the first one to set the election stage with accusations against his main ally for the last four years, blaming LSI for everything that went wrong. A good number of socialists, who had shared the power with LSI, were happy with these declarations, and the opposition was happy, too. The latter discovered that in this campaign its opponent was not the prime minister, but his coalition partner, identified the McAllister+ agreement as the enemy of bad government in Albania.
Game or agreement, jokes or truths, the prime minister in office feels safe about the 71 mandates that will assure his sole governance. Otherwise, Edi Rama would not dare to become so coarse, not even for show, with his former ally Meta, without whose votes he wouldn’t have governed in the last four years. For the ones who see reality objectively, the current prime minister clearly reflects this unreasonable confidence in his poor vocabulary used at electoral meetings, his bullish behavior, using jokes that are not even funny to the servants he surrounds himself with. On the other hand, Ilir Meta’s “tranquility” and “love” have become museum relics, while the heavy artillery are directed towards the government, the criminalization of the police, and cannabis.
If you think that these are more or less the same themes that Lulzim Basha used during his three-months-long Tent of Freedom, it seems strange that today that PD and LSI are not at the same front, or at least not on the same wavelength in their campaign messages. The situation has given Edi Rama the opportunity to appear, at least two days ago, like the person trying to be cool with the Democrats.
But, Edi Rama knows that a wink or raising up two fingers are good for some light-headed people who liked to flirt with the Renaissance. The conflict with Ilir Meta has decreased trust in Edi Rama, who is unable to lie to Albanians in the same way Pontius Pilate did with the Jews. Edi Rama cannot crucify Ilir Meta for his bad governance and then wash his hands in innocence, as if it has been Ilir Meta who had governed in the past four years. The doubts could be many in this campaign, but one thing is certain: maybe Edi Rama hasn’t figured out how to become prime minister!
