Genc Burimi
The recent changes in the Serbian government, with the integration within its ranks of two ‘non grata’ figures and the passivity of the West, at least for the moment, make this an opportune moment to open a debate in Albania.
The myth that the West cannot maintain relations with a 'non-grata' government was sold to Albanians for three years by the Rama-Basha duo. The Americans' declaration of Berisha 'non grata' in May 2021 served to remove Berisha from the opposition and even from politics. In this way, Rama would perpetuate his power, and Basha would become the leader of the village, the leader of the opposition, unable to become the city's prime minister.
But when Berisha showed with the tour of the pulpit that all those who had politically buried him prematurely had done the math without an inn, the duo Rama-Basha composed a new chorus, which was joined by the former American ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim.
Faced with Berisha’s impressive ability to unite most of the PD militants and people around him, from his tour of the pulpit to the climax of a packed stadium, the Rama-Basha-Kim trio mobilized with a radical message: in vain, you back Berisha since even if you vote for him, he can never come to the government, because the Westerners will never accept cooperation with an Albanian government with ‘non grata’.
We all remember the statements of each member of the anti-non grata trio. When Basha said Albania’s fate preoccupied him more than Berisha’s because he was supposed to, Basha could not allow the Westerners to isolate a future DP government with Berisha at the head or within it.
Yuri Kim, for her part, went even further when she told DP militants to stop eating grass and go vote for Berisha, with the message that the latter and his possible future government would never be a partner of the USA, so why waste time with it? For Rama, who rubbed his hands with joy, a period of political happiness opened that lasted over two years, where he almost annihilated the Albanian opposition in the name of the principle that Westerners and non-gata can never be together.
But there came a moment when the wheel of history turned back with the revolt of the Flakadans in the parliament and with the pressure of the Westerners, no longer against the group of non-women but against Edi Rama himself. The second historic moment happens now.
A US partner government like that of Serbia integrates not one but two non-gata. The seriousness of the theories of the Rama-Basha-Kim trio in Albania will depend on the response to this Serbian challenge.
Who is more important for the West, the statements of a certain time for public consumption or the realpolitik of the moment? The dim reaction, at the moment, of the USA towards a partner government that challenges it with two non-gata is a clear example that the foreign policy of a power like the American one is not based on principles but on interests.
There will be no problem for the USA tomorrow to cooperate with a new Albanian government with Berisha if Washington at least will not call the Serbian ambassador to Washington to demand an account of why Serbia is mocking the most significant power in the world.
But when Berisha showed with the tour of the pulpit that all those who had politically buried him prematurely had done the math without an inn, the duo Rama-Basha composed a new chorus, which was joined by the former American ambassador in Tirana, Yuri Kim.
Serbia non grata as an opportunity to verify the “principled” positions of the Westerners
I remember that for a long time in France, the entire doctrine of Le Pen’s party was based on a single cause: the exit of France from the European Union as an instrument of “enslavement” for the French.
A France outside the EU would be a France for the far-right party, and it would multiply its independence and prosperity. What the French Le Pen dreamed of, the British people realized most democratically with a referendum.
But looking at these last few years after Brexit, how much the British have lost in all areas and how much they regret it today, the French extreme right that may come to power in 2027 has undoubtedly deprogrammed without fanfare his, the withdrawal of France from the EU. The truth does not lie in principles but in interests.
Just as the British case served as a test of whether it is of interest or not to leave the EU, the Serbian case today serves as a test of whether the US is willing to quarantine a non grata government, as was forcefully propagated to the Albanians these three years.
Today, one of the most hated Serbian political figures, Aleksandar Vulin, has become deputy prime minister of Serbia, declared non grata by the USA, a sinner in at least three directions as head of the infamous Serbian intelligence, as a reliable and obedient partner of Russia and as the originator and supplier of weapons for the Serbian terrorist attack in Banjska,
Kosovo. Vulin takes the high post as the number two of the Serbian government as a sign of provocation to the Americans, and this makes “mu” for anyone, at least according to the statement of Vucic, who was proud that the Serbian government was created by Serbs and not by foreigners. Not content with that, Vucic makes another American non-grata, Nenad Popovic, a minister.
We knew, we saw, how the Americans surrendered to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Will they swallow this second humiliation in a region not the size of a quarter of Afghanistan?
Or simply, the Americans will not make a sound, letting us understand and taking us for fools, that it is not written in any text that the American state cannot cooperate with a non-gata government.
The ball is now clearly in Washington’s court. Will they decree the severance of relations with the new Serbian government?
If not, the trio Rama-Basha-Kim have put it in vain! In this case, the first two are more discredited than the Americans. Who can take Basha seriously now when he says that he betrayed Berisha for Albania’s interests and that America would not forgive us? Why does Serbia pray?
Who can now believe Rama, who said that for him, Berisha is “dead” and that he can never come back to power, as the USA would isolate Albania?
The US’s first reaction after the announcement of the new Serbian government is as disappointing as the vocabulary used in the DASH communique. The American Department of State, directed by Mr. Antoni Blinken, suffices to express his “disappointment” with what is happening in Serbia. So, the promised American hurricane to non-women is just spawning a slight breeze of disappointment.
From Kosovo to Albania, Albanians are no longer impressed with the moral game that masks realpolitik.
But we should not be surprised! That’s how it would happen in American-Serbian relations, and that’s how it will always happen, except that the Albanians were served the fable that the West does not cooperate with non-gata governments in its composition.
The West that cooperates today with dictators in the Middle East from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, passing through Qatar, the United Emirates, and even Jordan, a super ally, in moments of relevant international challenges, does not base its policies on principles but on interests.
Principles are for those who believe them. But the naivety of the Albanians is coming to an end. The awakening began with Albin Kurti in Kosovo, who did not stop putting the national interest in front of the “principles” of the Westerners over the “association” accompanied by threats. Today, Albin Kurti’s Kosovo, which defied the West, travels without visas to Europe, is entering the Council of Europe and imposes Kosovo license plates on the Serbian citizens of Kosovo, an achievement that his predecessors in Pristina, who were unconditionally open to Westerners, could not even achieve.
They dreamed them in their wildest dreams. The awakening of the Albanians continued on the other side of the border, where Berisha’s non grata was correctly read as a pure maneuver to silence the strong voices against the corruption of Edi Rama and not as a principle that was sold to us as an expression of a principled war of the West against corruption in Albania.
This gap between principles and realpolitik is best synthesized by a Western expert for the Kosovar press when he comments on the Serbian case. Tobi Vogël says: “The West thinks it needs Vucic to maintain “regional stability,” even though Vucic is the single most serious threat to this stability.”
In the case of Albania, this could be paraphrased: “The West thinks it needs Edi Rama to maintain stability in the country and the region, even though Rama, with his rampant corruption, is the single most serious threat to this stability.”
To conclude, if the Americans today “forgive” Vul, the man of Moscow in the heart of the Balkans, who is entering the Serbian government to return the region to a powder keg, then in the case of Berisha, it would be semantically nonsense, legal, and geopolitical, if the Americans do not forgive Albania’s entry into NATO, the only and unproven sin was in an era “before our era” the return of a football field to its legitimate owners.
The new era will show that if Berisha comes back to power, the Americans will bless him again because they didn’t have a problem with Berisha, but with the fact that he threatened the throne of Edi Rama, greatly weakened because of Edi Rama himself and the corruption of his idiot who dared to corrupt his own FBI! Such a character, one day the day will come to give an account, but for the moment our strategic ally judges that it is more interesting to have Rama where he is and not before justice.
As for Serbia, our strategic ally thinks that, at the moment, it has more interest in forgiving the Serbian government with its non grata than in having it against it. Fortunately, in realpolitik, moments last only a moment.
Gaddafi, amnestied and protected by Sarkozy’s France, ironically disappeared by the will of his Western protector
AL in Sweden. 