Berisha's strategy to keep the opposition divided

20 Maj 2023, 21:26Op-Ed Mero Baze

In the recent days, Sali Berisha is not even hesitating to reveal his strategy of keeping the opposition divided. Despite his rhetoric of reuniting the opposition, which is mostly being used as an excuse for the electoral loss, Berisha is openly doing the exact opposite. He is trying to make Lulzim Basha and Enkelejd Alibeaj his permanent opponents in order to keep alive the spirit of division within the opposition.

Starting with Lulzim Basha and continuing with Enkelejd Alibeaj, Berisha has created the idea that it would be impossible to reunite the Albanian opposition as long as they remain part of it. But, who are the people that he claims must be expelled from the Democratic Party and the opposition?

“The two” have been Berisha’s opponents during the last two years. They are leaders of the Democratic Party who, unlike Sali Berisha, have not been designated as non-grata by the United States, nor do they carry any accusations about serious atrocities like he does. Furthermore, they are not responsible for the destruction of the Democratic Party at the levels taken by Berisha. They are Berisha’s opponents and not his rivals, since they simply represent an anti-Berishian ideology in the party.

Meanwhile, what Sali Berisha is doing by asking for Alibeaj and Basha to be expelled from the Democratic Party is a tricky and dangerous strategy for the opposition, as it will only make the two more important, while giving them the moral right to continue their struggle of leading the anti-Berishian and pro-Western faction of the Democratic Party, which appeared to be the silent majority during the local elections of May 14th. Only 100 thousand opposition voters took to the polling stations and voted for the official Democratic Party, whereas 250 thousand others preferred to stay at home. This is the electorate that is not and will never be owned by Sali Berisha. On the contrary, the mass of opposition voters who reject his alternative will only grow in the future as long as the Democratic Party shall lack the spirit of unification.

However, it is exactly the potential re-uniting of the opposition that terrifies Sali Berisha. Therefore, in order to avoid it, he is focusing his attention and his attacks on Lulzim Basha once more, blaming him for the opposition’s electoral loss, even though Basha himself is among the 250 thousand people who preferred not to vote in the recent local elections.

Insisting on the idea that Basha and Alibeaj should be expelled from the Democratic Party, Berisha is doing nothing else but trying to build a duality, so that in the coming days, when people demand him to resign, he can claim that he “cannot resign as long as his enemies remain in the party.” This is Berisha’s entire strategy.

Lulzim Basha’s and Enkelejd Alibeaj’s resignation after losing in elections is a sign of emancipation and a deadly model for Sali Berisha as it sets the standard that, following an electoral failure, a leader must resign from his position. Therefore, in order to remain in politics and continue to keep the opposition divided, now he is simply asking Lulzim Basha to run once again for the leadership of the official Democratic Party, hoping this way to restart the saga of 2021 when Berisha’s personal issues became the issues of the opposition and now risk to become its grave.

Original article: https://www.gazetatema.net/editorial/strategjia-e-berishes-per-ta-mbajtur-te-ndare-opoziten-i390970

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