Does gratitude make sense in Politics?

2025-04-30 08:17:00, Opinione Ermal Mulosmani

One of the strangest curses I hear against Agron Shehaj is this:

"Ungrateful for taking advantage of the DP and taking its database."

I don't understand this kind of mentality at all. The Democratic Party (and any Party in general) is made up of people. People are the Party, not the Chairman. The Chairman needs people, he proposes to the most prominent people from civil society to come and contribute to the Party where he is the Chairman. This is usually the case.

The guest thinks and accepts or not.

If he accepts, then it is negotiated where he will make the contribution. It is all a negotiation.

-"I need you in Department X to strengthen it" - the Chairman tells him

-“No, I don't think that's what I need,” says the Guest. I think that what I represent is Department X.

Or:

-"I thought you should be a candidate for MP, the electorate gives you support, you have support"

-"I will do my best to get the right votes"

So, the relationship between the Party Chairman and his main figures is a relationship of mutual interest. Nothing is given for free by the Chairman. It is given in exchange for the qualities of the guest. The concept of gratitude and loyalty in politics is completely inappropriate. How will the Chairman make the Party without figures with political substance?

It's a mutual benefit, yes, that's true. Now let me move on to another thesis.

The Democratic Party, what it was in 2021, is no longer there. Period.

That Party, which gathered all the followers of Sali Berisha (who were its vast majority), but also a broader opposition front, died in the elections after March 6, 2022! What is left are Berisha's followers. They are the largest part of the opposition dough, but they have one flaw: They are unable to absorb others.

Berisha had the chance to rally the front once again by giving positions to those who left nothing unsaid about him. He had to do it for himself, not for them. He had to make the Party, a Party as it was more or less, a reformed party. Instead, he elected loyalists to key positions and showed that what he cared about was unconditional loyalty. That's all.

There I more or less parted ways with Berisha. Not because I was with another wing, I was with Berisha but with a Berisha who knew how to forgive, knew how to invite, knew how to create a front, knew how to pave the way and nurtured hope.

It did it successfully in 2005, it was time to do it again now. That thing wasn't done, that Party died.

With the death of that DP and the creation of the Party of the Loyalists, all those who thought with their own heads, not the Chairman's, felt like strangers. When you feel like a stranger in a Party, you have to be honest: Say goodbye!

This is what Agron did. He went to the office and told Berisha: "This party is different from what I was. Thank you, but that was it!".

He couldn't even be an MP for a party that doesn't exist, of course.

Where is the ingratitude here? I personally don't see any ingratitude.

As for the database, it's ridiculous to think that a list of names would be affected by a phone message. On the contrary, they feel annoyed and it has the opposite effect. I think so.

As for Berisha now. I think he's not doing too badly personally. He has the largest opposition party in his hands. He makes whoever he wants an MP, eliminates whoever he wants from among them. He easily gets 50 MPs, maybe even more. They're all under his tutelage. There's no more scheming. He intends to do as much as possible, maybe even 60. But it's quite clear that many people from the former Democratic Party front will no longer vote for Berisha. Because they're not loyal. Not once. I'm loyal only to my mind and conviction.

And what my mind tells me is that I should vote against Berisha this time. Against the rotation if you want. Or for Edi Rama if you want. Whatever you want.

I will vote to create a crack in the political bipartisanship cemented in 2008. Everyone, I think, should make a contribution to this. To say to the Rama-Berisha binomial, you have fixed each other in politics, but people are not stupid. They find solutions.

Vote for the young, even if it means telling the old: We voted for these people not because they are better than you, but because you didn't support us in 2008./ CNA