Sazani, the treasure island for Rama

2025-01-16 13:43:00, Opinione Andi Bushati

In the recent open debate about the extent to which our media tells the public the truth, it was extremely interesting to see how the decision to declare Donald Trump's son-in-law an investor in Albania was reflected, just a few days before he took office in the White House.

Some of the articles by those close to the revival sold this as a government decision. Some, even more detailed in terms of formal facts, portrayed it as an act undertaken by the Strategic Investment Committee.

In fact, to be simple and truthful, it must be said that this is neither a consequence of the government's development policies, nor the fruit of studies on which businessmen meet the conditions to receive favors. This is an individual decision of Edi Rama, for his own personal reasons.

There is more than one argument that supports this claim. First, Jared Kushner, like Grenell, have landed in Albania via transit from Vu?i?'s Serbia. Just like Alabar who was thrown into Durrës after the Belgrade Waterfront project, just like Tony Blair who serves as a lobbyist for both autocrats, just like the same polling and campaign companies, the Albanian prime minister and the Serbian president use common channels to achieve their goals.

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The Zvërnec-Sazan project is also closely linked to what Kushner and Grenell will build on the ruins of the former Ministry of Defense, bombed by NATO, in the center of the Serbian capital.

So, he is a hook that Vu?i? and Rama have used to get closer to the newly elected president. Rick Grenell, as the man in charge of negotiations for the partition of Kosovo and a close friend of Vu?i?, has simply served as the facilitator of this political deal.

But the story doesn't end there. To defend the outcome agreed with Belgrade, the head of government has also used local businessmen. According to McGonigal's corruption scheme, their goal has been clear: to instill in Ivanka, Jared, etc. the idea that small Albania is a paradise where no one leaves with empty pockets.

There is no doubt that Edi Rama desperately needed this connection to work, after the departure of a democratic administration that embraced the line of massacring the political opposition in Albania and especially after the horrific records of anti-Trump statements preserved in the archives.

Not surprisingly, the US Senate committee investigating conflicts of interest has mentioned the spending of money at the billionaire president's private hotel in Washington and the recent negotiations with Kushner. The head of this committee, Ron Wyden, raised concerns that these could be attempts to directly influence the Trump family from Albania and Serbia.

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Of course, the indications are clear. But they become even stronger if you look at the big picture.

Just as in this case, Edi Rama has undertaken such personal adventures for the arrival of Afghans abandoned by the US into the hands of the Taliban and the Mujahideen, just as he denied himself when he said that Albania would not serve as an asylum camp for rich countries and then donated the country's sovereignty to Giorgia Meloni.

So it's hard to doubt that the latest decision by the Strategic Investment Committee is simply a personal game. It comes right now, when beloved Democratic allies in the US are leaving power. It comes just days before Donald Trump takes it back.

But, as much as this decision seems linked to the November 5 elections and the January 20 inauguration, paradoxically it has its source in our May 11 challenge. Because there, Albanians will have as an alternative, almost the only one, a man who forgives morsels from the homeland, to continue ruling it even more brutally./ CNA