New Force Vows to Break Mould in Albania

Albania is stuck in a prolonged political malaise, partly owing to the prevalence of a two-party system that has dominated the country for 20 years and whose beneficiaries are widely seen as two sides of the same coin.

During the past few months, however, a new organization, originally inspired by soccer fans, has developed ambitions to enter parliament.

The Red and Black Alliance has a nationalistic platform geared towards garnering the patriotic vote. By playing this card it poses a clear threat to the voting base of the governing centre-right Democratic Party led by Sali Berisha and to a certain degree that of the opposition Socialists led by Edi Rama.

It could possibly become a party to reckon with and a kingmaker in any future government coalition, similar to the Socialist Movement for Integration, LSI.  

There are already rumours that when President Bamir Topi’s mandate expires in 2012, he may be asked to head of Red and Black Alliance.  

But can this new force break the 20-year political mould and become the fourth contender in Albania’s political life?

And if it does, will it bring further openness to Albania’s political arena, where the Democratic Party, the Socialists and its offshoot, the Socialist Movement for integration, currently hold absolute sway?

Despite being a new organization, the alliance can boast of more Facebook members than either the Socialist or the Democratic Party, which demonstrates the strength of its appeal to the young.

The organization has also stepped up its presence by opening branches in all western capitals with an Albanian diaspora.

With a third of Albania’s population living abroad and the influence of Albanian expat communities hitherto left untapped, the alliance is laying the groundwork for becoming a political party.

The newcomer certainly brings a quality that has mostly been absent during Albania’s 20 years of pluralism.

All other southeast European countries already have some sort of a sizable nationalist party in the parliament.

Although the movement has a nationalistic agenda, according to its statements it does not aim to create a “Greater Albania” but merely to foster the rights of Albanians living throughout the region.

According to its website, the principal goals are “to protect the Constitution of the Republic and defend human and national dignity by transforming these into symbols of resistance for the [benefit of the] national cause.

“The AK aims to protect the religious and ethnic harmony in the country that exemplifies our nation,” it adds.

The organization insists it has no irredentist agenda; instead its goal is to see the Albanian people united under the umbrella of the EU.

The Deputy Chairman of the High Judicial Council, Kreshnik Spahiu, who strode to leadership of the alliance, has been able to refocus the organization’s ambitions, giving it a broader appeal and cohesion - a far cry from its roots in the world of soccer fans.

There have been attempts before in Albania by other political forces to carry the “patriotic” banner, such as the Party for Justice, Integration and Unity, PDIU.

This government party runs on a nationalist platform and promotes the concerns of Albanians living in neighbouring countries where they constitute a considerable minority.

But the AK seems to have momentum that the other nationalist parties lack, partly because it has no stake in the current politics.

What has also caused a surge in support for the AK have been other issues at the forefront of their agenda, such as their recent call to boycott the census, which according to them divided people on ethnic and religious grounds.

A petition initiative by alliance to stop the census gathered 40,000 signatures within days, and paradoxically won backing from all ethnic minority parties, as they also considered the census flawed.

The current parties with a nationalist platform that are part of the ruling coalition have lost credibility in the eyes of the people due to their tacit approval of certain government decisions considered detrimental to Albanian interests.  

One was the closed-door sea border demarcation negotiations with Greece, which apparently favoured the Greek side and which, after a series of protests, were struck down by Albania’s Constitutional Court.

Considering the influence of Albania’s neighbour to the south, sensitive bilateral issues tend to be downplayed by whoever is in power in Tirana.

One such issue that was on the backburner for a long time, that of the Cham Albanian minority, expelled from Greece during the Second World War, has recently gained more traction.

The nationalist PDIU, which forms part of Berisha’s governing coalition, garnered most of its votes by championing this issue.  

However, considering the influence that Athens has on Albania’s Euro-Atlantic integration hopes, the government itself treats the issue of the Cham expellees - and their demands for compensation - as taboo.

By contrast, the Red and Black Alliance remains vociferous on the Cham issue and on the treatment of Albanian immigrants in Greece.

The advantage of the AK lies in its appeal to Albanians living in the broader region as well as Greece.

The organization has members in neighbouring Kosovo and in Macedonia; its leaders claim that the organization’s purpose is to unite all Albanians on a voluntary basis in the common cause of Albanian identity.

If the Red and Black Alliance fulfils its potential and becomes a serious factor in Albanian politics, the main political parties may have to adjust their goals and indeed their partners.

The question is whether the organization is just an other political meteorite, coming in fast with a bang and eventually fizzling out like so many others before it - or whether it will become a permanent fixture of Albania’s political arena. Only time will tell.

 

Besian Bocka is program manager and research associate with the New European Democracies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). This comment does not represent the opinion of CSIS and the views expressed are solely those of the author.