Two moral issues regarding the deals between DP's leaders and Sali Berisha

It is getting clear now, that Sali Berisha and his group have had a non-public agreement with certain leaders of the Democratic Party, like Gazmend Bardhi and others, according to which, the Democratic Party would enter the local elections race only with candidates for the city councils. This was also confirmed by a Democrat MP representing Lushnja in parliament.

There are two moral issues in this entire story. The first issue is the unofficial agreement between leaders of the Democratic Party with Sali Berisha to leave the playing field open for Berisha’s candidates. There is nothing wrong with their choice, since it is not the end of the world for one to surrender and let his opponents continue the race. The issue however is that any agreement reached in party’s name should be public and party members need to be aware of it. Gazmend Bardhi, Jorida Tabaku or anyone else that might have been involved in the negotiations should have informed the party’s leadership regarding Sali Berisha’s offer. As a matter of fact, their option might even have been picked as the best one by the party’s leadership.

On the contrary, they pretended that the whole idea was theirs, even though they were hiding that it was Berisha’s option. Furthermore, they have confused their fellow Democrats, who might have even agreed with this option as long as they were informed that it came from Sali Berisha. The fact that this was not presented as Berisha’s option shows that they feared that they feared potential rejection by their fellow Democrats, who do not support Berisha. This is a dishonest and ugly strategy that seeks to manipulate an entire political party for certain personal interests. It is not the end of the world for MPs to stand on Berisha’s side. As a matter of fact, it is an act that requires a certain amount of courage. However, being too afraid to support Berisha just as much as to go against him is much worse.

The second moral issue is related to Berisha’s rhetoric against Enkelejd Alibeaj, who is being demonized for not being able to select candidates for tall 61 municipalities. How could he find the right candidates in a party that holds secret talks with Sali Berisha in order to stop potential candidates from running in elections? In other words, Berisha and his people invested themselves to stop the Democratic Party’s candidates and then blamed Enkelejd Alibeaj for not being unable to find the candidates. If Alibeaj was aware that certain party members were secretly negotiating with Berisha, then he might have found 2 candidates for each municipality, since he would be fighting political battle instead of falling into a political trap.

Therefore, it seems that Berisha was not only invested to recruit Democratic leaders, but also to present his secret deal as the Democratic Party’s failure. This is even more humiliating. It is clear under the present circumstances why the Democratic Party could not find candidates for the 61municipalities and why it lacks a real leadership. Apparently, the party is nothing more than a bunch of people seeking to strike a deal with Sali Berisha, hoping that he will be grateful to them for this favour.