Enough of Zaev’s servility to Rama

Aleksandar Nikoloski

We all saw how the local elections in Albania went. There is no other country in Europe where only one party participates, and the ballot contains the name of only one candidate. That is not democracy, it is dictatorship and communism. What humiliation of democracy this is, when no one else wants to participate in elections because there are serious evidence that the previous ones were massively rigged and bought and you persistently go to them. What is that attitude towards your people when you go to vote in your shorts at the polling station, and you call yourself a prime minister? In the end, the people, of course, don’t find this behavior acceptable, so the turnout in Albania with all the pressures, blackmail, threats, bribery, and stuffing ballot boxes was miserable 21 percent, the real turnout is probably below 15.
Edi Rama has no problem with that! What interests him is that he will rule with all the municipalities. For how long is another question, and how it will all end is also another question. The problem is so great that renowned European newspapers publish evidence of evident crime and bribery of the Albanian voters. This Edi Rama and this Albania are unfortunately the partner of Macedonia in the European integrations. And let’s not take this the wrong way – I wish all the best and great prosperity to everyone who lives in Albania, my disagreements are with the policies and methods of their prime minister, and not with the citizens or the country. On the contrary, I have dear friends there who deserve to see their country move forward. After all, these people, by staying home and not voting, showed Edi Rama in the best way possible what they thought of him.
But this Rama, as I said, is Zaev’s partner, and after last winter’s agreement, which I have already published, Macedonia and Albania are in the same group. So how can accession negotiations with Albania start when only the country has only one political party participating in elections? Which decent politician from any EU member state will agree to negotiate with a country where there is no democracy, no free and competitive elections and freedom of choice? No one, of course! If you add to this that crime and corruption is flourishing in the country and it slowly becomes the biggest drug maker and exporter in Europe, then the belief becomes even certain that European politicians would not want to start accession talks with such an undemocratic and corrupt leader. And that’s the truth!
The question is how can Macedonia start the accession negotiations if our country is in the same group with Albania, led by such a prime minister? The answer is simple – There is no way to start negotiating! This question is reasonably posed when Zaev already agreed last year, through Bujar Osmani, with Edi Rama for Macedonia to slow down with the reforms so the countries could enter the same group, hoping to start negotiations this year with his friend Rama, who created the artificial “Tirana platform” that helped Zaev come to power, so it’s a way of repaying him, but still the plan didn’t work, so the question is – what will Zaev do to separate Macedonia from Albania so that he could hope for a date to start negotiations in October. Will Zaev do anything? Of course not! Because Zaev is dependent on Rama, because he kneels in front of him. He depends on Rama because without the Albanian votes Zaev has no power. Macedonians have given up on him long ago, so Rama is his only hope. That’s why Stevo Pendarovski’s logical move to demand Macedonia’s separation from Albania in the European integration process was not welcomed by Zaev! Zaev cannot do anything without Rama! What Zaev does not know is that in the meantime Rama has become so unattractive among Albanians that the socializing with him and the support for him only takes away points among the Albanians, and he will see this in the next parliamentary elections.
However, Zaev is learning quite a few things from Rama. He learns how to rig tenders, for example, for sterilization. Or learns how to handle the marijuana business in the best way possible, or learn how to negotiate suspicious purchases about what we keep hearing and seeing these days. This school for personal wealth and abuse of power is definitely best learnt from Rama. But that school is coming to an end in the same way as in Albania, with the voters massively turning their backs and losing their support.
The future has a clear direction, Zaev needs to go as soon as possible because staying means going backwards. Remaining in power means corruption and crime, means stagnation towards the EU and using Rama’s methods in Macedonia.
I wish Albania quick recovery from Rama. His fall is close, very close, he himself is not aware of how close he is, he thinks  he will be in power for a few more years, when in fact, he only has several months left. This is good because the citizens of Albania deserve better, just like the citizens of Macedonia. Without Zaev and without Rama!