Bushati-Bassuener in "Public Square": The Revolution of Consciousness

2024-10-12 18:53:00, Aktualitet CNA

Ditmir Bushati in his "Public Square" space discusses with Kurt Bassuener, co-founder of the Council for Democratizing Policies. In this episode they dwell on the growing concern by international analysts and the media regarding the deterioration of democratic standards and the economic and social situation in the Western Balkans.

Both interlocutors discussed whether the USA and the EU are in to help a democratic and socio-economic transition and transformation in our countries and why this kind of deterioration of democratic norms and standards is happening?

Western Balkans

Focusing on the Western Balkans, which Bassuener defined in a report as a "value-free area of ??transactionalism", he says that the Americans have significantly respected the EU, the European path, the perspective of membership, and have worked for this. Although, he continues, everyone has understood that the US is the guarantor of security in the region, the EU is allergic to force. "The EU just doesn't care about it.

"The current situation is based on logic and the presumption that the Balkans is tribal in one way or another. The only thing that can be done is its administration, which means we don't want unrest, we don't want instability. For this reason, we will we cooperate with the current rulers", says Bussuener, for whom the emphasis has been removed from democracy, the rule of law and human rights as far as the exercise of current politics is concerned.

Focusing especially on this issue, which Bushati calls "emigration diplomacy", the conversation emphasized the fact that the policy we have now is more accurately translated as: "we will have a partnership with whoever is in power, and the bases of our relationship will mainly be the economy and immigration". Depending on which country you are from, EU countries will want to recruit your country's workforce, or keep it away, but they absolutely do not want people from the south and the far east. This is a kind of "sanitary cordon" policy. This is valueless geopolitics. A kind of geopolitics that the developing world once experienced.

The US election

Bushati and Bussuener also discussed the impact that the presidential elections in the USA are expected to have on the Western Balkans, for which the latter expresses concern if former President Trump wins.

"I'm terribly afraid if Donald Trump wins, because we saw enough of what happened the first time. Yes. There has been continuity in transactionalism, but at least the Biden administration came out against the division of Kosovo, which the Trump administration was open to when this was proposed by Vu?i?, Thaçi and supported by Mogherini. I think this was a hidden agenda when Vucic and Grenell tried to negotiate something," he says. Then, we saw Kushner and Ivanka Trump's business deal in Vlora and Belgrade, co-chaired by Richard Grenell. I call Trump our first Balkan president, as he had exactly the same operating system, with no dividing lines between family and public affairs, or the exercise of official function.

Regarding the role of the USA in the region, the two interlocutors share the opinion that American foreign policy should focus more on the so-called political leverage than economic. I think the attitude is: "we, the US, want you Europeans to adopt these wild children as they are, and then they are your problem". This is a disillusioned attitude, as it cannot work this way. But I really think that's the level of thinking. And here we are not talking about people who do not understand. I think there is an over-obsession with economic levers, rather than political ones, and there is a reason why people want to dominate politics, because that way they can control the economy, not the other way around.

Deterioration of the state of democracy in the Western Balkans

One of the things that gives me hope for the region is the citizen movements from the bottom up against money, corruption, various abuses of power, whether at low or high levels. Systems may change, but the way non-accounting powers operate is remarkably consistent across the region, and people understand that, he asserts.

The question is whether it can come up with a positive agenda instead of a resistance agenda, because rebellions and resistance are adversarial, while revolutions are supportive.

A revolution is needed first for consciousness, however we wish to use that consciousness, whether it be revolutionary and beyond the institutions or find the means to break through the resistance within the institution. I think that only with bottom-up initiatives will we be able to break out of our brain-dead, zombie-like policies, and realize that there are more possibilities than we thought.

We don't have to deal only with the Ramas, and the Vu?i?s, and the Dodiks, etc. We can reach out to the citizens, and they will be able to find real representatives for the change agenda they want, be it the environment, the rule of law, education, health care. All of these are issues facing citizens throughout the region.

There have been so many talks about regional cooperation, but these have always been between governments, and never between citizens. I think the social contract is built from the ground up. At the moment, none of these companies have a social contract. So there can be democracy when it rests on something, whether it is a legacy, a constitutional order, or a war, or something that is very demanding./ CNA