Sali Berisha may well reunite the struggling Democratic
Party after Lulzim Basha’s chaotic leadership – but the way back to power will
be rocky.
By Altin Gjeta
A few days ago, the centre-right, often self-proclaimed
conservative-leaning, Democratic Party recalled, in a deeply divided mood, the
30th anniversary of its first landslide victory in March 1992, which
terminated the country’s brutal one-party communist dictatorship.
The party had been established by an anti-communist
students’ movement, intellectuals and other socially mixed forces to counter
the communist Labour Party’s unbearable, iron-fisted rule, and lift Albania out
of its extreme political, economic and social backwardness.
Over the following three decades, the Democratic Party
governed Albania for 13 years, led by the well-known cardiologist Sali Berisha,
first as president of Albania, from 1992 to 1997, then for another two terms,
as prime minister, from 2005 till 2013.
That year, the party lost the legislative elections, and
Berisha stood down as party leader, opening the way for his protégé, Lulzim
Basha.
Basha’s takeover was expected to usher in a fresh start and
a new era for the party after Berisha’s strong but much-criticised leadership.
But, contrary to expectations, under the claim of so-called “reforms”,
Basha used the historic leader’s backing as leverage to expel high-profile
politicians from the party and tighten his grip on the steering wheel. His
leadership was too clumsy to genuinely reform the party, build a new model of
policy making, or bring the party back to power.
Despite presiding over consecutive electoral defeats, the
most recent in April’s parliamentary elections, Basha clung on to the chairmanship
of the party and made promises about its swift return to power.
US move divides party into two camps
Had the US not designated former party leader Berisha “persona non grata”, the party would have
silently perished, isolated and abandoned by its electorate and by the wider
public due to its underperformance.
The former prime minister’s designation sent shock waves through
the party and to everybody’s surprise, under the requirement of the US ambassador
in Tirana, Basha suspended Berisha from the parliamentary group.
This came as blow to Berisha and to most party members who
were by now exhausted, seeing themselves still in opposition after eight years.
This in turn abruptly ended the cosy relationship between Berisha and Basha and
split the party into two antagonising camps.
Berisha gathered grassroots support and, at his own
convention, dismissed Basha as party leader, changed the statute of the
Democratic Party and launched the initiative to reorganise the party from top
to toe.
But Basha did not recognise these decisions and stubbornly
stayed in office until another debacle, in the March 6 by-elections, which forced
him to quit after an overwhelming majority of his MPs pressured him to take a
step back.
Reuniting the party is not the
biggest challenge
While the crisis was brewing, both sides engaged in
vilifying rhetoric that inflicted more tension and opened a deep fracture in the
party, cutting it from top to bottom.
But Basha’s resignation, and a court ruling, on the lawfulness
of Berisha’s December 11 “National Convention”, removed a stumbling block
preventing re-unification of the party.
Berisha has proved to be still the most influential figure
among party members and the whole opposition, and most of Basha’s faction will now
likely merge with this flock and the party will reunite under the former prime
minister’s leadership.
However, unity within the party is not the biggest challenge
the DP faces in the upcoming months. This is because Berisha is both the
strongest and the weakest point of his party.
He has shown that he calls the shots and is the centre of gravitation
within the party, but recent elections’ result indicate that the party still
faces a steep climb, in trying to beat incumbent Prime Minister Rama’s Socialist
Party.
This is due to a combination of historic and contemporary
reasons.
The Socialist Party, successor to the old communist Labour
Party, is the oldest ruling political faction in Albania and has the largest
base of any party in the country.
As Albanian voters tend to be partisan and electoral
campaigns power-driven, this leaves the Socialists with a clear advantage over
the centre-right of the political spectrum.
In addition, 30 years after the fall of the communist
regime, there is great disillusion with party politics, in which Berisha has
been a key player.
To make the matter worse for the opposition, Albania has
demographically shrunk in recent years. The turnout in elections has also steadily
declined, and it is remains to be seen how the Democratic Party under Berisha can
reach and galvanise these disenchanted voters.
Berisha has shown in the past that he is capable of reinventing
himself and the party, but as things stand, time is running against him.
He has been in politics for decades that have consumed a lot
of his vigour. Apart from that, he has been a staunch supporter of the US in
the region throughout his political career, but his designation as “persona non grata” by the State Department
last year pits him against the US administration.
His return to the helm of the party is expected to strain
the party’s relationship with the current Biden administration. In a statement
last year, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar warned of
consequences if Berisha was re- elected leader of the Democratic Party.
But, since then the tables have turned. The outcome of the March
6 by-elections that saw Berisha massively outperform Basha, and emerge as the
only political opponent to face Prime Minister Rama. This may bring about a
recalibration of the US approach to both the Democratic Party and Berisha.
Altin Gjeta holds a Master of Arts
in International Relations and Politics from the University of Westminster,
London. He works as an independent researcher and consultant in politics for
different think tanks and international organisations in Tirana.
The
opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
views of BIRN.
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