Despite the fact that Edi Rama demonstrated extraordinary numerical strength by voting for the territorial reform with a qualified majority, one thing is clear: he has entered the autumn of his power.
Beyond those 85 votes that seem to make his power invincible, there are some details that show that something has irreparably broken. MPs who until yesterday he crushed like mice or who looked at him with admiration as a national hero, now throw jokes at him. He has made it a habit to get up close to midnight, enduring eggs and water, as he also needs his vote. Even Belinda Balluku, who, after those who have come out, is ashamed to appear in public, is forced to go with one foot to raise the pitcher in parliament.
But the first signs of the rise of power are not only visible within the party, which he continues to rule with an iron fist. The wave of anger with socialist deputies, who can no longer go shopping without bodyguards accompanied by shouts of "Shame...", "Thieves..." or symbolic blows, has now also affected him. As never before, someone throws eggs at his luxury Mercedes, a group of citizens block his way to Kayo's headquarters, while a student rally forces him to cancel the inauguration of the new school year.
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VIDEO/ Young man hits Edi Rama's car with an egg: You thief!
October 7, 22:16
All this thanks to a protest that has been going on for four months and that, in addition to his resignation, demands nothing less than his being sent to prison as a corrupt prime minister.
The "flamingo revolution", whose decline has been predicted since day one, has produced two major effects. First, it seems to have given a boost to SPAK, whose files have already undermined the legitimacy of this government. Regarding the awarding of tenders by telephone by Belinda Balluku, who, as it turns out, have concentrated their effects on villas on the coast, it can no longer be said that she "acted behind the boss's back". Regarding the "heart & soul" relationship of Vlora Hyseni with the lover of 33 thousand euro wines, the prime minister cannot wash his hands as if he had no knowledge. For the horror of the thefts at the ANA, accompanied by kidnappings of people for which the police collaborated, the dome of this gang cannot be relieved of responsibility.
It seems as if an invisible hand has emboldened even the special prosecutors, programmed until now as levers against the opposition, to take actions that were unimaginable until yesterday. Could anyone believe, a short while ago, that SPAK would urgently knock on the door of Rama's Jewish friend, Rony Yeffet, only after a wiretap was published by a first-class enemy of his like Arben Ahmetaj and published on the only opposition TV like Syri?
An imagination inspired by communist theories would see cases like this, or the arrest of the head of the secret service, as a hand of foreign partners, but even without any evidence for this, this is enough to prove that the fear of digging around Edi Rama's private garden has now subsided.
The second effect of the “Flamingo Revolution” is the radically different light in which the international press is seeing Edi Rama. He has already become accustomed to losing his temper, getting up nervously and leaving interviews halfway, as happened recently with Channel 5 journalist Andrew Callaghan. And the reason is easy to understand. Because the man who for 10 years was painted with the colors of an atypical artist politician, is now being portrayed as a kingpin linked to organized crime who has turned the country into a launderer of drug money, to the extent that even the son-in-law of the US president was forced to be confused with a suspected drug trafficker.
All of this, from his own party's cadres who throw him jokes, from citizens who boo him in the streets, from the brave prosecutors and international journalists who compare him to the godfather, shows one thing: that Edi Rama's political curve has reached its end. He may maintain his majority with 85 votes in the parliament, he may continue to approve gifts for strategic investors and sign towers in the middle of parks, but the atmosphere of the end of the regime has already taken hold around him.
Of course, such a thing does not mean that we will get rid of him very soon, nor that he will not continue to give away morsels of Albania to prolong his agony. But, one thing is already clear to everyone: his propaganda story is already over. Even for those who, out of interest, want to see him still in power, the fable of his purity or integrity is so unbelievable that if you repeat to someone that famous expression “the son of a mother or a whore who can ask for money in the prime minister’s pocket”, they no longer become nervous, but explode into unbridled anger.
LAPSI.AL
