Speaking to the Flamingos, warning the Socialists

If I wanted to be completely cynical about Edi Rama’s attempt to show that he is “listening” to the Flamingos, I would say he has no one to write to. But there is one address for all those promises: the Socialists who run the government.

Every example he gives of how his government treats citizens is true, and people face it every day. Dealing with the state remains a crude, endless and often hopeless struggle. The besa Rama is offering—a solemn pledge on behalf of the administration—is more likely to cheapen the word than give citizens any real confidence.

But his message is clear. He wants to rethink his government, not the Flamingos.

The Flamingos have already done their job. They showed that part of society rejects the government’s style, its standards and its record. Those who joined the protest are not poor or desperate. Many are doing well personally but want more from the government. They have every right to demand it.

They also exposed an opposition that Sali Berisha had kept hidden. When he withdrew during the first two weeks, people came onto the streets who rejected the government simply because they had had enough of it. Then Berisha moved in, took over and poisoned the protest, reducing it to yesterday’s spectacle outside Parliament, with stones and eggs.

There is little point talking about the protest now. What matters is the silent opposition to the way the country is governed. It exists, and it is serious. But it has no address, no organisation, no leader and not even a clear set of ideas. There is nowhere to send an answer and no one with whom to make a pact.

This letter is really for the Socialists. It is an attempt to forge a new compact within the party and make clear that the government must now do a few big, serious things. The time for façades, slogans and promises is over.

After announcing grand plans for tourism and infrastructure, the government must provide water, electricity and roads wherever it has approved construction. Otherwise, it has invited investors into hell.

Then there is the madness of the inspectorates, which invent cabinet rules to squeeze money out of investors. There is the absurd requirement that every investor build a sewage treatment plant before discharging wastewater into a sewer network that is itself polluted. And there are local and central IKMT inspectors waiting to punish anyone who repairs a balcony or garden wall damaged by winter without paying them off.

Give tourism investors your word. You gave them no legal guarantee. You simply encouraged them to trust Albania and put their money into it.

Agriculture needs major land reform. Farmland must be put to productive use, and the country needs a serious strategy for sustainable mountain tourism, one of its greatest economic opportunities. So far, there has been little beyond conference talk. Give farmers your word that this will change.

Land registry offices have become a form of terror for ordinary citizens. They either never reply or send automated messages demanding endless new documents. Give people your word that this will end.

Education has become an industry with almost no link to the economy. Its main function is to move young people from the regions to Tirana, where many end up working as waiters or in jobs unrelated to their degrees. Link education to the labour market. Make it a path to useful skills, not worthless certificates. Give parents your word that you will stop wasting their money on pieces of paper that lead nowhere.

These failures of government are the only addresses to which the government should send its pledge.

Forget the Flamingos. They neither need nor want the government’s word. They have no single grievance they expect it to solve. They have their own offer to the public. It may be naive, mediocre or often ridiculous. But they are not on the streets because they want the government to change. They want it replaced.

The government will only withstand the political shock of that protest when it treats the Flamingos as rivals, stops obsessing over them and starts dealing with its own failures.

So far, Berisha has done more to help the government by taking over the protest than the government has done to help itself. But it cannot survive forever, term after term, by using Berisha as a shield.

That is what has created the despair that nothing in Albania ever changes. Whatever happens, the outcome is always the same because Berisha is still on the other side.

That despair produced the Flamingos. They emerged when Berisha left the stage. When he swooped down on them like a hawk, he made them lose their heads. But he did not remove their anger. No government pledge will do that, because they do not need one.

The Socialists need to make one pledge to themselves: stop acting as though no one can remove them.

Originally published in Albanian as: T’u flasësh “Flamingove” që të dëgjojnë socialistët!