Party political interest versus national interest

2025-06-25 12:03:00, Opinione Ekrem Spahiu

The Albanian nation is facing a grim political crossroads with serious consequences for national interests.

In Albania, political elections were held on May 11 of this year, while the Parliament is performing its functions with the deputies of the previous legislature, which will continue until September.

The final result seems far away because the CEC is continuing to recount votes in about 50% of the ballot boxes. The findings of international observers for these elections have been presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where, among other things, reference is made to the “deep politicization of the electoral administration”, “vote buying” and “use of state resources by the party government”. Such findings are not small enough to reach the conclusion that their legitimacy is in serious question.

In Kosovo, even though the political elections have been over for about 5 months, the new Parliament has not yet been constituted. For the 36th time, the Parliament is unable to elect its President! An unprecedented political vacuum, which Kosovo has not allowed even in its most difficult times. How long will this political adventure continue?

And this is happening precisely when the clouds of regional and wider security are becoming increasingly dark. The security situation in the region is threatened by many factors. The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vu?i?, declared these days that the Serbian army is “stronger than ever” and added that “only a small number of people know” what has been purchased in recent years, since “everything has been done in secret”. “Our goal” - he said, “is to protect our country”!

No one threatens Serbia militarily. Even those who punished it long ago for the massive genocide that the Serbian military and police machinery carried out against the Albanian people of Kosovo, today, openly or quietly, are recognizing its victim status! Of course, leaving the way open for revenge. This vengeful status, willy-nilly, was exposed by the Serbian President himself when he said that the Serbian army "is becoming terribly striking." It is not difficult to understand that it has military plans, as well as the model that Putin applied in Ukraine, where he did whatever he wanted, while the West was powerless to stop it.

Meanwhile, Kosovo's relations with its major natural allies have been damaged, and sometimes even worsened . We should consider it a blessing and a privilege that President Trump also mentioned the Serbia-Kosovo conflict as one of the most dangerous conflicts of our time, stating that the conflict is damaged in the long term and promising that he will "fix it again." But do conflicting policies and, especially, the institutional vacuum created in Kosovo help this process? We must say with all our hearts that any institutional vacuum is only to the benefit of Kosovo's enemies and one less hand in support from its friends.

I have also raised it in a previous article: intentionally or unintentionally, but the fact is that a national security vacuum has been created in the Albanian national space, while geopolitical balances are changing rapidly. A resizing of the geostrategic engagement of the US, an increasingly different role for Europe and an increase in Russia's aggressiveness are expected. Of course, these developments will bring a resizing of the presence, assistance and support from allies and partners for security in the region and thus, in the Albanian national space.

Precisely in this complicated situation, the main political and institutional actors in Albania find "reasons" for any waste of time, to postpone the electoral farce that took place as long as possible, but they do not find time to sit down and unify the position on national security in this turbulent regional and global reality. There is no time to go, talk and influence brotherly in Kosovo. So far we have not seen communication. It is easy to blame the brother for the lack of communication, but in any case the fault lies with all the brothers.

It is time more than ever for Albanian statesmen and politicians to awaken the national spirit, show political culture, and find the strength of character to stand by each other and not turn their backs on each other, as we are unfortunately seeing.