Prime Minister Edi Rama has provided an "Albanian-style" solution to the conflict between businessmen Vasil Bedinaj and the Muça brothers in Vlora, declaring that the land that was not the cause of the conflict will be expropriated in the public interest and will be turned into a public asset.
"We have decided to expropriate for the public interest the entire area of that banal and brutal conflict of yesterday and, according to the law, turn it into a public asset for all, a natural oasis for the blessed olive tree, a living park where native Albanian varieties and those with Mediterranean representatives will be planted and preserved, and all olive oils produced in Albania will be exhibited," Rama declared.
He added that the goal is for this space to also serve as a symbol of unity and peace.
"It will return to a space that unites everyone, to a territory of peace under the shadow and blessing of the tree of peace, the blessed olive tree," the prime minister said.
But beyond Rama's romantic description of his decision, this personal resolution of the conflict by the prime minister precludes an institutional resolution of what happened in Vlora.
By getting into the middle of the dispute with his decision to expropriate the land in Palasa, Rama not only calms the bloodshed, but also avoids an investigation into why there were two claimants with ownership documents for the same land? How did it happen that the Vlora mortgage led to an overlap of property? Shouldn't the courts resolve the conflict and give one or the other party the right to claim the land?
All these questions now remain unanswered, until one morning the prime minister woke up and put an end to the "property expropriation" dispute, ending the dispute between his two businessmen friends.
