Where did Rama find the Albanian passport in Tirana?

2025-03-29 21:05:00, Opinione Andi Bushati

Although in an exhaustive response to Lapsi.al, the European Union delegation in Tirana made it completely clear that the country's membership in the Union does not depend on which political force wins on May 11, Edi Rama continues the refrain of a manipulative campaign with the EU passport.

This weekend, too, in the presentation of the electoral program "Albania 2030", the prime minister linked the path to Brussels with the vote for the Socialist Party. He opened his long monologue with this topic and dedicated a full 20 minutes to it. To make the dream he is selling even more concrete, he even presented the passport with number zero, of the fictitious Albanian citizen Tirana, with which all our compatriots would be provided, if a majority of them donate their vote for the Renaissance.

To make the manipulation more palatable, the head of government took on the role of preacher to fools, confessing that this was the only way to avoid being discriminated against at airports, to no longer be asked by Italian or German police where you will sleep, how much money you have with you, or when you will leave.

The small detail of this low game with this strong psychological element is the most significant indicator of the great manipulation that Edi Rama is unfolding. He knows very well, and even if he didn't, his advisors would not let him make this mistake, that there is a significant difference between an EU citizen and one from a country belonging to the Schengen area. The former can indeed move freely in the EU, but he does not automatically avoid border controls. So even if the predicted miracle happens, it will take a very, very long time for access to Albanians at airports to be the same as that to the French, the Spanish or the Poles.

And this is the most optimal version, that is, if all goes well and the EU sticks to the current version, which for its own geopolitical reasons, gives a signal with enlargement, giving the green light to Tirana and Podgorica.

In reality, things are much more difficult. To reach the goal of completing the negotiations in 2027, the Albanian government's negotiators still have 35 chapters ahead of them, none of which they have yet closed. Normally (there are worse examples), the period between the opening of negotiations and their finalization lasts at least 7 years. But even if Albania completes them in the middle of the next mandate, the EU is still not close. In the best case, for full membership, it would take at least two or three years, the same as Croatia, Bulgaria or a good student of the EU, such as Slovenia. This long process requires the ratification of the treaty, one by one, by the member states by vote in parliament or referendum. So by all accounts, even in the most fantastic hypothesis, EU membership is not at all an issue of this four-year governing mandate, which will be contested on May 11.

Then, to remove all the border barriers with Schengen, which Rama played with today, it could take another seven or eight years, as much as it took Bulgaria or Romania.

So why did Rama need this unnecessary manipulation? Why did he choose to talk about removing barriers at airports? Why did he order his campaigners to draw the European passport of the Eagle of Tirana, when it has nothing to do with this four-year mandate?

If you calculate the deadlines, if you see the real probability of our path to Brussels, that is, if you deconstruct the prime minister's electoral speculation, it is easier to find the reason. Edi Rama is flying to Europe, because he cannot stay in Albania. He is ending a mandate where he has been certified as the leader of a gang of robbers, from Lefter Koka, who was handcuffed immediately after the last elections, to Veliaj, who ended up in prison on the eve of the new ones. For these reasons, he will not talk about yesterday. He finds it difficult to look back. Precisely to avoid this, he is manipulating the future. He is behaving like a dream merchant. Even the European passport of the Eagle of Tirana is in the service of this lie, because Europe is once again being used as a fig leaf for thieves.