Why Sali Berisha has suddenly lost his calm?

Sali Berisha and his supporters seem to have lost their calm during the last couple of days. The very people who used to ignore the official Democratic Party and felt safe because of their connections with the head of CEC, Ilirjan Celibashi, they have now lost their calm. Four members of the Complaints and Sanctions Commission who voted to have Ilir Meta’s name in the ballots as leader of the “Together We Win” coalition have become a target of attacks and public lynching, even though it is one of the most consensual electoral institutions.

The majority of the decisions taken by the head of CEC, Ilirjan Celibashi are against the Socialist Party, but nobody has made any statements against him. Meanwhile, Berisha has launched a public and media attack against the four members of Complaints and Sanctions Commission only because they followed the law. It is the same harshness with which they attacked the opening of the Democratic Party’s electoral campaign in Tirana. Prec Zogaj, one of the founders of the party, was among the first to be attacked for participating in the opening ceremony.

The Democratic Party is a separate political party and Sali Berisha does not have any say regarding who should or should not speak in its ceremonies. He chose to be their opponent and this is exactly what is happening. However, Berisha is continuing to try to impose his will not only at his own party, but also at his opponents. What is the reason for this sudden nervousness within his party?

Berisha’s efforts to take control of the opposition monopoly have not materialized. While the Democratic Party does not have candidates running for every municipality across Albania and is missing competition even in some major ones, it is still running for the municipality of Tirana and this is enough to reflect an anti-Berishian spirit across the country.

Sali Berisha has finally realized that, in order to fight against him, the Democratic Party does not need to run in all 61 municipalities as long as they are able to keep alive the struggle against his ideology. What worries Berisha now is not the winning or losing of his candidates. As a matter of fact, he does not want them to win, since he is aware that they will abandon him if they win in elections. What he really wants is to prevent the seed of anti-Berishian ideology from taking life within the opposition.

This is what really concerns Sali Berisha. Roland Bejko, the Democratic Party’s candidate for Tirana, is growing daily according to polls, since he represents the anti-Berishian electorate. It does not matter if voters will elect Bejko or someone else from the Democratic Party, or if they will not vote at all. What matters is that they are not going to vote for Sali Berisha and hence will take away his opportunity to convince the West that he is still a powerful political factor in the country. This is why he has suddenly lost his calm and most likely, will make him even lose the elections.