Berisha's persistence as a strategy of failure

2026-04-26 09:43:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

In a normal country, failure produces reflection. In Albania, failure produces only one thing: more stubborn repetition of the same farce.

There is a line between persistence and stubbornness that turns into self-destruction. When the same formula is tried over and over again and the result remains the same, we are no longer dealing with political strategy, but with a vicious circle that only feeds the illusion of change. Berisha's persistence is no longer political ambition, nor ideological conviction. It is a pure form of refusal to accept reality, and, like any such refusal, is becoming a public burden.

Berisha's insistence on being everything and leaving nothing out is no longer simply an internal party issue. It is no longer a Democrats issue. He has long since taken them by the throat, turning them into a crowd cheering for a past that will never return. The problem today is bigger: he is holding the entire political spectrum hostage, robbing the country and Albanians of the only oxygen they have left: the alternative of choice.

And when the alternative disappears, power turns into institutionalized arrogance. Rama no longer needs to convince anyone, nor to improve, nor to be accountable. Why does he need to? He faces an opponent who behaves like a political relic, who repeats the same slogans, fights the same personal battles, sings the same worn-out refrain. And Rama plays chess with someone who always makes the same move.

So it mocks. When your opponent is predictable, worn out and closed in on itself, power is no longer afraid. And when power is not afraid, it does not bother to correct itself, there are no limits to improving and removing arrogance.

This is the point where the opposition is no longer its own problem, but a public disaster. Because by clinging to an individual who refuses to leave even when everything it had to give is gone, it is saying to the Albanians: “Choose between this and nothing from us!” And the militant majority, for lack of another option, chooses “this”, not out of conviction, but out of despair. The others leave in disgust. Here the opposition becomes ridiculous.
While the people choose to reject the “opposition”!

Meanwhile, Berisha continues. He speaks, accuses, promises, returns..., accuses Rama of sitting alone, as if time had frozen somewhere in his best years. But the problem is that time does not stop. It moves on and leaves behind those who do not know how to leave the stage.
And Berisha continues here for 60 years to get tangled up in the feet of Albanians, since 1968 when Soviet tanks entered Czechoslovakia; 22 years as a communist, 36 years as a "democrat".

Currently, with its behavior, Berisha's opposition, no matter how right it may be, is no longer an alternative, but an alibi. An alibi that gives the government the perfect justification for every mistake, every arrogance, every corruption. Because what is facing it is not a new project, but a return to the past.

Today, Berisha's insistence is no longer simply a personal choice. It is an act that produces collective consequences. Because by not leaving, he is not only keeping himself in the game, he is keeping out every other possibility.

And so, Albania remains trapped between a government that feels no pressure and an opposition that produces no hope, in a duel where one has no rival, and the other no longer has any reason to be a rival. An entire country forced to choose not the best, (whatever that may be), but the only thing left before it. And this is no longer politics.

The conclusion? Insistence on repetition that does not produce change is not a virtue. It is hostage-taking. And this hostage-taking today has a cost that all Albanians pay.