FLASH NEWS
What did he say that didn't work out?
2026-06-19 19:03:07 / EDITORIAL
By Ermal Peçi
A few days ago I was with a Democrat friend of mine from the south coast discussing the problems and the state of the DP. Unlike me, he had a different projection of what would happen in the DP. When we met, he told me: “I told a friend of mine that I would meet someone who supports Basha and he told me: What Basha said, he is getting.” That is how the idea of this article about what is really happening in Albania began.
Lulzim Basha is perhaps the only politician who has been endlessly attacked by the old political, oligarchic and criminal structure, but despite everything he did not take a single step back. The gossip power, led by Rama and Berisha, used every possible mechanism to present him as incompetent, a fool, a thief or a joker, just because his political biography was difficult to blackmail.
Amidst intrigues, ruthless war and threats, Lulzim Basha was the first to speak out about the triangle that controlled Albania – Rama, Berisha and Meta. And why they labeled him as “Berisha’s political son” he had the vision and courage to be the first to break away from it, without looking back. It was clear that a party that has America against it and that positions itself against justice is a party without a future, and this is what is happening today with Berisha and the DP.
He warned that Berisha would use the party for his personal grievances against SPAK and for reasons of non-women would turn the party into a bunker, and that is what happened. Henry Kissinger, in his book Diplomacy, stated that a politician is there to make decisions, which only time will prove whether they were right or not. “This crisis showed that within the DP there have been and continue to be deputies or former deputies who, more than political principles, have followed the logic of personal survival—ready to line up next to Sali Berisha, in the hope that through blind loyalty they can return to the mandate lists.”
But Basha's warnings were not limited to the opposition crisis. He was among the first to insist on the decriminalization of politics, with the conviction that a democratic state cannot be represented by individuals with criminal records or connections to the underworld. The decriminalization process removed dozens of officials and elected representatives from state institutions as a result of Edi Rama's political will, setting a new standard of integrity in public life.
Equally early was his warning about the economic model being built in Albania. He spoke of an economy distorted by corruption, the drug economy and money laundering, arguing that such a system could produce wealth for a handful of people, but never sustainable development for the country. In an economy where competition is replaced by favoritism, where the honest investor faces informal capital and where institutions are captured by clientelistic interests, political rotation becomes almost impossible.
The recent SPAK arrests are clearly showing how Edi Rama has criminalized the Albanian economy and made normal political rotation through the vote almost impossible. They are shedding light on how corruption, the connections between politics, business and organized crime have affected the functioning of the Albanian state.
Today, Albania has been in the midst of a wave of civic protests for more than twenty days, directed against corruption, state capture, and political impunity. The chants “Rama in prison, Berisha in prison” are not simply protest slogans, but expressions of a broader demand for justice and a new political order.
In a way, what is articulated today as "New Albania" resembles the concept of the "New Republic", proclaimed by the Democratic Party in 2017, which centered on citizenship, civic culture, and the final break with the protracted Albanian transition.
Friedrich Nietzsche said: “He who has a why can withstand almost any how.” For years, Albanian politics chose to follow the crowd, while some chose to remain true to their beliefs, waiting for time to become the fairest judge of each person's words and actions.
Ultimately, the question that arises today is not whether Lulzim Basha won or lost politically. The question is whether his warnings about the Rama-Berisha-Meta triangle, about decriminalization, about the capture of the economy by corruption and drug money, as well as about using the opposition as a shield against justice, are turning out to be closer to reality than the perception that was created about him. “In politics, as is often the case, applause and whistles belong to the moment, while judgment belongs to time; and time, sometimes, is the best ally of those who chose to remain faithful to their convictions, even when this was not the easiest or most popular path. #share
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