The Misery of Mero

2025-04-07 18:15:00, Opinione Ermal Mulosmani

The Misery of Mero

Mero Baze is a prominent name in Albania. If 10-15 years ago, during the reign of the second Berisha, someone was interested in knowing what was happening in the country, beyond the trumpets of power, the most accurate address was Mero Baze and his Tema Newspaper. Whether we like it or not, this was the truth.

The cynical ability of Berisha's panegyric chronicler to turn into his most trusted opponent has fascinated me ever since. "How can" - I thought then - "moral scruples allow a man who yesterday said "white" - black, (or vice versa, this is not up for debate) to do the exact opposite and surprisingly not lose credibility?

On the contrary, his greatest enemies of yesterday turned into his greatest admirers….

I have an explanation for this.

I have read it systematically and with admiration, regardless of how politically convenient what Mero wrote was. He has the ability to communicate with the reader through simple language, a laconic, concise and ironic style, focusing on the opponent's weakest point and relentlessly hitting that point.

His reputation in journalism has been achieved by his absolute merit. Even when he wrote his panegyrics on Berisha, his detractors admired his sharp pen, the quality of his writing, even though what Mero wrote often conveyed a virtual, imaginary reality, reminiscent of the fable of the village of Pometkin. For this reason, they appreciated his rare ability to create credibility in his unreliability.

However, even at that time, Mero's most prominent quality was not his panegyrics (writings praising Berisha). His most prominent quality was his brilliant anti-oppositionism, focusing on the opponent's defects and attacking them. It must be said that, from this point of view, no one has ever rivaled Mero.

In the darkest times of the DP, Mero was one of the resistance fighters, he was the most reliable voice of the Opposition and the biggest annoyance of the government, as they say, its “pain in the ass.” Perhaps Mero was not “on the right side of history” - I am paraphrasing an expression that another government journalist told me one day - but he was dignified in relation to many of his benefiting brothers.

At that time, Mero was the main voice of the political thesis “Anti-oppositionism as the death of pluralism.” (paradoxically, since, when we remember the time of Berisha 1, Mero himself was the greatest Anti-oppositionist).

A well-elaborated and eloquent thesis that criticized with facts the degeneration of the press of the time and the disappearance of the opposition press.

Here's how Mero describes it in his book "Confronting Anti-Oppositionism":

"At this moment as we speak in this hall, a luxury plane has taken the editors-in-chief of several newspapers, televisions, radios, their wives and children, and they have fled for the weekend to Greece, with expenses paid by the Albanian government. All this is done so that the editors-in-chief remain silent and do not present to the Albanians the monstrous thefts of the man who takes them on a plane ride and gives them money. These editorial offices are the foundation of the Anti-Opposition press, a yellow press, without dignity, but abundant, like straw, that always makes it difficult to find grains of wheat in a mess like Albania."

Mero Baze, Confronting Anti-Oppositionism”, page 242. (see photo at the end)

I have never read anything more dignified than Mero. Note how beautifully he puts his finger on the wound: "a yellow, undignified and abundant press where the right word is lost."

Here, this quality of Mero made me love him. Focus.

Think about today's situation. Has Albania ever had a more yellow press? (Yellow press is the journalism of scandals, sensations, rumors, showbiz).

The Misery of Mero

But even when he became the voice of power, for a while, Mero did not lose his dignity. He truly became an Anti-Opposition but was politically consistent as the biggest Anti-Berisha in the country. As usually happens with apostles when they turn into opponents. As long as he writes against Berisha and the corrupt Berisha circle, he still reflects the scent of the old predator that strikes hard and murderously at his prey.

Ah, Mero's drama is when one day I saw him singing praises for his new idol.

Poor Mero!

One day, shortly after Edi Rama had taken power for the third time, he wrote in an editorial of his at the time:

The only puzzle for his new success is whether he will succeed in normal governance, without battles, or whether he will wait for something bad to happen, to appear as a savior. Then instead of saying "God forbid we be without a government," we will say "God forbid we be without disaster."

The Misery of Mero

This article, in my opinion, marks the death of Mero Baze as a journalist and his return to being a puppet of power. A slur of such magnitude, spiropalace, was unthinkable to me that it could happen to a journalist of Mero's stature.

What?! Will we get to the point where we wish for disaster to happen to us so that the Messiah can save us? Nooooo, this was terrible, mournful, miserable, cancerous. The metastases of the cancer of servility had reached Mero's brain. I thought about writing to him: "Please, go back to your anti-opposition writings or to Albini, you are excellent there"; I hadn't completely removed the pain. But I let it go.

A few days ago, a bomb fell on the Tirana City Hall. Edi Rama declared that "only Ali Ahmeti could bring me to this cemetery today". Of course, he didn't say the word cemetery, but it was the "elephant in the room" - as they say. The entire media was busy with Veliaj, Rama, the Directors, 5D, the thieves, Spaku. It was the topic of the day. I passed by Mero a little. Do you know what the editorial had written?

One titled: “The battle for the Athens rally is becoming bigger than the rally itself” (see Gazeta Tema 02 May, editorial).

So, when a fight was taking place between the two most powerful people in power, Mero informed us about a "patriotic battle", Albanian-Greek, that was taking place right in the heart of Athens!!!

What I understood was that Mero was in trouble, he was in debt to both of them.

But the climax came yesterday.

An editorial titled "Edi Rama as the savior of Greece's European elections" - instinctively made me let out an almost solitary "Noooooo" sound....

It mixed pity with humor, disgust with contempt for servility. It was a good lesson in how a high-level journalist can be reduced to when he compromises with the authorities.

The day you do the journalist a favor, take the keyboard too. I've never read Meron so miserable...

I feel bad for Mero, but you weren't far from Frroku./ CNA

Taken from Ermal Mulosmani's Facebook page