The only illegitimate force in the DP is the minority that keeps silent about Berisha

Sali Berisha’s re-election as leader of the Democratic Party is legitimate.

That has nothing to do with whether he can lead the party to victory, or whether he will make it even smaller. It has to do with a simpler fact: the Democratic Party that remains today is Berisha’s party. It represents him. For that reason, his re-election is not only legitimate; it is the only way this remaining version of the party can continue to exist.

The public pressure against his re-election is misplaced. A race against Berisha inside this Democratic Party would be formal at best, and probably hypocritical.

The party’s real problem is exactly this: what remains of the Democratic Party is Sali Berisha. The people who deserve criticism today are not those who vote for him because they want him. They are the ones who stay with him while pretending they do not. They make the party look larger than it really is.

The Democratic Party has been reduced to Berisha’s political unit not by those who love him, but by those who do not love him and still remain.

Berisha knows them all. He knows the people who do not want him, but still come close to him in the hope of becoming MPs. He knows those who understand perfectly well that he cannot lead them to victory, but stay anyway because, for them, the Democratic Party is a salary list, not a party.

For almost 35 years, those who did not want Berisha inside the Democratic Party eventually spoke and left. The latest was Ervin Salianji. Each of them had their own sins before they broke with him. But those sins are partly washed away when someone chooses to enter a real battle with Berisha.

Those who do not want him, but remain with him, are the only illegitimate element left inside the party. They represent no one. They do not represent the Democrats who genuinely want Berisha. They do not represent the real Democratic Party, which would be smaller without them but at least more honest. And they do not even represent themselves.

They do not dare to stand against Berisha with a vote. They stay there like employees, hiding while they wait for the next candidate lists. They are happy to watch Berisha bury the Democratic Party because they benefit from the defeat while claiming they are not responsible for it. The blame, after all, will fall on Berisha.

Their great illusion is that when Berisha eventually leaves the stage, they will inherit the party because they stood in line during his difficult days.

They are wrong.

On that day, they will be the most rejected people in the party. They will be rejected by those Berisha expelled, and also by those who tolerated them only because Berisha needed them there — as proof that even people who did not love him were still inside the party.

These are the only illegitimate figures today in what is still called the Democratic Party.

Berisha and his loyalists, at least, are in their own house. It is a private business built around Berisha, and he will keep it open for as long as he keeps his eyes open.

After him, they may call it a disaster.

In truth, it will be salvation.

Originally published in Albanian as: E vetmja gjë ilegjetime në PD është pakica që hesht për Berishën