Hope is wanted!

2024-06-23 11:40:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

Illustrative photo

One of the most annoying concepts in the current political vocabulary, which has an almost pejorative connotation, is that of the narrative that parties are supposed to present to society programs and alternatives to convince and attract them, especially the angry, hopeless electorate grey.

But if we think about it, it's like asking politicians to tell their citizens a story, even a fairy tale, or a barcalet about vision and honesty, or sing them a song.

If they do, it is clear that citizens and potential voters will neither be inspired, nor mobilized, nor persuaded to convince others to vote for this political class.

Because, today, in the era of mass communication, when the sources of information are endless, citizens are neither stupid nor easily lied to. They understand very well when what the politicians are proposing is just a communication trick and when it is something substantial.

And, according to the perception and what they understand, they act, that is, they vote! What our politicians' politics lack is substance.

Therefore, in Albania, we see the same crisis of democratic politics that has prevailed for years and that makes us no longer trust politics and its rhetoric.

Albanians think that, in fact, no credible alternative is being proposed to them.

Because no one considers that those alternatives are relevant to their lives, or, to be more precise, believes that they do not belong to them.

At best they believe that what they are being offered is a derivative of the variant of the existing system.

In short, despite the beautiful and revolutionary words, the essence lies in the fact that the parties, ie. the 34-year-old establishment, they tell us that: "Basically things will remain as they are, with two or three retouches in appearance and we will be back!".

What is missing and that would give another dynamic to the democratic processes, is a political space, which would mean that "things can go a little differently and we will have a little more social justice and a little more feeling safety. And they will be realized according to our alternative..."

Personally, I would say that there is hope for a party to receive my vote, which would honestly come out and say that we should vote for them, because it would violate us, but less than the current government; that it would oppress us, but less than at present; that he would steal from us, but less than actual thieves; that he would mock us, but less than those who mock us every day, that he would kill our hope, but with more style and elegance...

Albania has three categories of electorate.

On the one hand there is a strong minority who want things to stay the way they are because they just feel good the way they are. This first category, without question that has remarks and complaints, is not happy either, but feels that things are really moving in the right direction. These are the militants and the military.

This is the social base of the majority. Without question, this also constitutes the social base of the opposition electorate.

This is one third of society and, since it has greater political self-confidence, it is politically dominant. Also medially. Because they invest in this category to stay alive.

But it's still a third, even though it's strong and has more volume than it should!

But society is complex and there are two other parts, silent, not too loud, seemingly indifferent, but angry and looking for a way out. And in this part of society things are different.

It's all those people who, despite looking at their work and not caring about politics, find that they are last in terms of average pensions and have the largest decline in percentage of real income in the region of Europe.

And this is not just a statistic.

It is the painful reality that this category experiences. And while they "earn" more money than in previous years, at the same time they realize that they are poorer. That the money runs out before the end of the month. That they often can't meet even basic needs, not to mention annual vacations that are a summer night's dream. That they migrate from their eyes to their feet for a better future and no longer believe in the "Albania 4 million plus" stories or other similar plums. That sending their child to university in Tirana or abroad can be a real financial nightmare. That they are being kicked out of the house because they cannot afford the rent.

The conclusion is that this part of the society constantly hears about the improvement of economic indicators and about "the development and prosperity of Albania, which only the blind and malicious do not want to see or touch"... But this category really sees absolutely no improvement real in her life.

This category can sometimes pretend that all they care about is "having a good time", if someone is tricking them on social networks and media with trashy TV programs, but in reality this is just a psychological defense mechanism for their insecurity and anxiety.

And that is why it is turning more and more into an angry society. With a silent anger sometimes that doesn't know when and how it will explode.

But it is also a more fragmented society than ever.

It can be seen in various public opinion polls, it can be seen in protests and non-protests, as well as in the rejection of politics with the slogan that "nothing can be done".

And that anger usually goes unrepresented.

This has a logic; by its very nature anger cannot easily create a relation of representation because it lacks the positive element, the other point of view.

Even in 1990-1991, Albanian society was extremely angry. Only then, along with the anger, did she believe there might be perspective. Even in 2013... In other words, there was hope!

This is missing today. And this is the great deficit of the parties, which are in the wider democratic space.

Because simply making people's protest a political discourse does not mean that you are formulating an alternative perspective.

This presupposes collective thinking, study, knowledge, specific and above all feasible proposals.

And when I say doable, I don't mean small-scale changes. I am talking about major upheavals, not about some variations regarding the "protest vote", which political populism seeks to win in order to benefit.

Because no one can travel by plane, train or bus with yesterday's ticket; the ticket must be renewed./ CNA