Rama needs to work more, talk less

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama’s statement, in the Kosovo legislature that in the future Kosovo and Albania may have a common president has caused a political earthquake in the Balkans. Reactions came from Serbia, Athens, but also from Brussels. According to European Union spokesperson Catherine Ray, statements similar to that provided by Rama in Pristina are not in the context of regional peace and are interfering in Kosovo’s internal affairs.

“Statements that can be judged as political interference in neighboring countries do not help in building good neighborly relations. The European Union expects all countries to continue constructive and cooperative relations,” said Ray.

In neighboring Serbia, the leader of the National Party of Serbs, Nenad Popovic, assessed the statement of Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama as very risky outside the peace framework among the countries of the Western Balkans, which, according to Popovic, Rama should be declared an undesirable person.

“The interpretation of the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, that Albania and the so-called state of Kosovo should have a common foreign policy and a president is directed against peace in the region and is a hostile act against Serbia,” Popovic said.

Rama’s statement sparked major reactions and comments among the Greek media, which in their latest issues wrote that the idea of ​​”Greater Albania” is still alive. The renowned Greek journalist of Alfa television, Dimos Verikios, compared Rama with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan because he dreams of “Greater Albania”.

“The spirit of ‘Greater Albania’ has come alive to become a reality, Edi Rama dreams like Erdogan,” Verikios wrote.
But part of the experts in the domestic and regional policy of “Independent” said that Rama needs more work, and less to talk about, that at the moment the Western Balkans do not need such bombastic statements.

Mersel Bilali assessed Rama’s statement as damaging to the Euro-Atlantic path of the Western Balkan countries.

“This statement belongs to the Balkan mentality, to utter big words, and to do small deeds. That statement again aroused the political ambience in the already complicated Balkan mentality at a time when between the influential countries, Russia and the United States, a sharp geopolitical battle. Such statements hurt the process of relaxing relations, as well as the pro-Western movement in the Balkans. Perhaps the merger of the two states may take place naturally, but that cannot happen with the bombastic statements of the leaders, as it may result in braking the entire process, “Bilali said, adding that at this point no bombastic statements and politicians should talk less and work more.

Analyst Isa Spahiu, on the other hand, thinks that Rama’s statements, given that he talks a lot and does less, are just political marketing to distract the public from real problems.

“I would trust Rama and his statement, only if the national unification made it through the common national alphabet, which means that it started as a project and did not finish it. Then, sensitizing the issue of the Presevo Valley, then any of them, Rama or Hashim Thaci, to clarify the issue of Mitrovica, to close the issue with Montenegro, and not to deal with this issue, I will only then believe that the prime minister of Albania and the prime minister of Kosovo are sincere. Otherwise, this is an instant political provocation and marketing by Edi Rama, who is trying to save himself from other open issues in Albania, “Spahiu said.

Spahiu further believes that experiments with multi-ethnicity in the Balkans do not give the result expected by the European Union, and in correlation with Bilali’s statement, believes that Rama should work more and talk less.

This is not the first time the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, to stir up the international public through similar statements. On January 17, before the young staff of his party, he stated that he and his party are most deserving of the adoption of the Law on Languages ​​in Macedonia.

“A few days ago, the Macedonian Parliament passed the law that some time ago could not even be imagined. I tell you that all of you should be proud, you should be proud of all those who voted, supported and believed in this party, because without it today there would not be an official Albanian language in Macedonia,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said a month ago. Earlier, he caused a storm in Macedonia with a gathering for the Tirana platform, and there were also several episodes on the relations with Serbia. Even Kosovo reacted to his statement as a reflection of disrespect of its independence.

Blerim Ismaili