Point of confession for a new maturity of Albanian citizenship
Instead of an article, which would necessarily be long to be a more in-depth analysis, I am giving a few points that, looking at them from a distance, help outline a development that seems to me to be of particular importance in Albania, the entry into the second week of protests initially initiated with the idea of a luxury multi-billion tourist project in Zvërnec/Sazan.
1. The movement does not have a traditional party leader and consequently, it does not have a traditional party goal. The goal of this movement is not to replace the current ruling party with the current opposition party.
2. The movement makes the protest in Tirana the same in citizenship as in Stuttgart, Valencia, Copenhagen or Prague. Maintaining the form is not imitation or pretense, it is proof of the maturity of a citizenry which has this also in the political content of the protest.
3. The movement was initiated with the defense of Zvrnec/Sazan. The symbolism was immediate: the Albania of protected areas that are devoured by the state for private interests, the private guards that drag the citizen in the eyes of the policemen as a confession for the privatization of the state, the property privatization scheme, the scheme for defining strategic development areas… The flamingo and its pink color were placed in front of these symbols.
4. In public perception, there is no greater contrast than the black of the private guard that drags the citizen in front of the long, fragile legs of the flamingo with its pink color. This contrast is deepening day by day: the protest movement is not about the guards dressed in black, but about the perception of the guard as the last link of a system that has privatized decision-making on their behalf.
5. The movement is – in its capillary, non-ideological, non-partisan form – against the system. The system they are against is not democracy, but its capture, the transformation of the electoral process into the form of state capture.
6. If this is so, even in an unconscious form, the movement is against the current social consensus, the consensus of the transition. In this consensus, throughout this century, political parties, endemic corruption, organized crime, media control or self-censorship have coexisted. The logical conclusion of this consensus is Zvrneci/Sazani.
7. The Flamingo movement is the second danger for the current government in Albania. The first was the appearance of SPAK, which in the absence of real opposition, the situation also gave it the role of corrective element of the system. Prime Minister Rama confronted SPAK when he knocked very close to his door, that of Deputy Prime Minister Balluku. His argument was that SPAK had entered the space where it should not be, the political one.
The Flamingo Movement now occupies the political space for the correction of the system, but this Movement does not see the systemic problem only in the party in power.
8. Being against the consensus and being a capillary movement is a problem for the current government in Albania, as for any other government that does not meet the criteria of functional democracy. Such movements are not controllable by the government and KM Rama is making mistake after mistake in the face of this movement. He described them as a product of anti-Albanian interests and ridiculed them with bullying that resembled sexism. With the arrogance and lack of basic respect with which he speaks to that part of the media that is close to him and which, however, he calls “cauldron”, he spoke to CNN, to oppose the legitimacy of the Movement and its description of reality.
9. KM Rama in his initial behavior has the risk of allowing the rapid creation of analogies between him and President Vučić, who is facing a capillary movement against him and which he has labeled as a “colored revolution”, similar to those that overthrew the Eastern European powers close to President Putin.
10. Albania and Serbia, although with powers that do not fulfill the criteria of functional democracy, are states and societies that differ from each other. Prime Minister Rama does not support a movement built on the long-standing policy of hating other peoples, as is the case of President Vučić. And the protesters in Tirana should not be afraid that the “sound cannon” will be used against them, like the protesters in Belgrade. However, Prime Minister Rama may have chosen the same initial option as President Vučić, calculating that the protesters will be tired.
11. Among the other unknowns is how long the Flamingo Movement can last, namely the determination of citizens to increase their participation day by day or even just to repeat that of the previous night. But if the past ten days are any indication, this is a movement that isn’t going away anytime soon.
12. At the beginning of the protest, the public discourse included the Trump family, Syrian investors, Qatar, the Emirates, drug clans and conspiracy theories. As the protest continues, everything is being condensed into legible symbols. The Albanian flag, the demand that sovereignty be returned to the citizens and the flamingo as a new symbol of European Albanian citizenship. In front of them, it is no longer an investment, but a system. Therefore, for the protesters, the demand for the resignation of the prime minister is not only seen as a change of people in power, but as the first act of a deeper demand: that Albania be returned to its citizens.
