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The rallies, the protests, the passion and the result

2024-07-07 10:30:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

The rallies, the protests, the passion and the result

Ardi Stefa

How much society has changed...

How much has politics changed...

Once upon a time, the "Skënderbej" square or the squares of the cities of Albania were too small to host thousands of people who flocked to be present and protagonists in the rallies or protests of their party.

Voices, slogans, applause, flags and banners, made up the scene and the capital and cities were alive with people and passion.

Until about three decades ago, it was enough to announce the date and place of the rally to mobilize militants and citizens.

But all these are references to other times, which will never return.

This did not change overnight, but was a consequence of the gradual change in the way of thinking and behavior of the society and the electorate towards the parties.

Over time, the square was transformed into a stadium, and the stadium into a large banquet hall. But even in these dimensions, the halls are hardly filled with political gatherings. Not only because the way politicians communicate with society has changed, but mainly because now a large part of society has distanced itself and maintains its distance from politics and parties.

However, even those who remain loyal to the party do not easily follow the parties in their events and gatherings.

Either because the way of life has now changed and priorities are different, or because they feel that these gatherings have nothing more to offer them.

Today's "protests" seem like bad and anemic copies of the passionate and large protests and gatherings that the country experienced three decades ago, when communism was "overturned", but also several years later. Thousands of people in the squares; passionate, energetic, full of dreams, hope...

Today, some political leaders and some clueless serviles, who got behind the berihaj, still insist on gatherings, large protests in the squares. But, unfortunately, they don't gather people, they don't inspire, they don't have a pulse, momentum and passion and they end the protests in two hours, after some anemic speeches by the same people, who turn their speech into, not more than 100 words, since so many words are contained in their vocabulary (without adding here the curses with a home book.). Even as news on TV, they are no longer news, since all the rallies, protests, part-time gatherings have never produced any results, even though famous singers have appeared on the stage of the protests...

Even the party officials, deputies and lifelong rulers (even of the opposition) do not hide that they see it as a chore, or as a daily routine.

And after every protest TV analysts and ordinary people start comparing and drawing conclusions. Analysts justify salaries, ordinary people blow the whistle for the failure of another protest.

The protests are compared by the older ones, who lived and participated, but also by the younger ones, who heard them and perhaps mythologized them in their minds. "What do these speeches have to do with the protest speeches of the 90s?", "What do these protests have to do with the protests of the 90s?"

Absolutely none, is the answer. Politics has lost its charm, its charm, it does not fascinate, it does not excite, it does not attract or inspire. And it doesn't even "sell" anymore.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, let's not fall for the easy fix of nostalgia. The country suffered for many years from party passions, but also from the syndrome of great, charismatic leaders who knew how to magnetize crowds. Let's not forget that the last time we experienced the passion, the pulse and the crowd vibrating with slogans and enthusiasm was in the last decade of the last century. The calls that could be heard kilometers away from "Skënderbej" square, or the main squares of the cities of Albania, reminded many historical moments, sometimes even fatal ones. But what followed was the "cold shower" of landing in reality. Which explains why, since then, any love affair of Albanians with politics has been lost. After 34 years of the same people at the top, the elites never circulated, the change that people expected, dreamed of and hoped for, did not come, or did not come for the better.

Today, it is rare to find a politician speaking to the "soul" or feeling of the people. To tell the truth, to seek solutions, to provide solutions and not just accusations, insults, or findings. Today's expectations from the people are more realistic, the doubt greater than ever.

The reason is simple?

The only ones who appeal to anger are the merchants of anger and despair, the merchants of hope and fog. They are the same ones that we have seen for 34 years in the stands of rallies and protests, who promise change and who repeat the "threat and warning" to the political opponent day after day, endlessly.

It is precisely these traders of "anger, hope, despair and fog", who always have answers, interpretations and easy solutions for everything. But the solutions never come from these people. Because they make a complex world seem fantastically simple, divided into black and white, with demons and victims. These work more with fear and uncertainty, not with hope and expectation, and they poison the hope, the future of the citizens.

The antidote? The antidote cannot necessarily be the anemic, part-time protests, the schematic speeches by the same people and faces, in front of the fanatical people brought from every corner of Albania, or even by the anonymous parties, who put them on the podium for fill the hour, but those essential protests, which achieve tangible results, which bring about change.

There are other forms of protest, more qualitative, more essential...

The longer these drag on to manifest, the more likely someone will emerge who will use cynicism and frustration to rouse the citizens.

Or not...