12 hours as winners

If Edi Rama had designed a social experiment to see what can happen in a country run according to the vision of a group of people trying to imitate revolutionaries on computer keyboards, he could not have done better.

Rama’s warning that, upon arriving at Rinas from the U.S., he would hold a press conference on the latest developments triggered a wave of inexplicable enthusiasm, mostly in the network of the “flamingos.” Within hours, an entire scenario was built around early elections, a resignation and, further on, popular marches toward Rinas to celebrate the victory.

After the press conference came a new wave of irritation — why was Edi Rama so determined to keep governing, and why was he so dismissive of every option they had produced over the previous 12 hours, from early elections to resignation?

So, for 12 hours you could watch how someone tried to turn their own dream into an event and then, the same person tried to dictate to you how an event that had happened should be seen as a dream.

It is all about Rama’s new opponents, who call themselves “flamingos.” They have finally decided that they have made a revolution, that they have overthrown Edi Rama, and that now he must hand power over to them at the nearest point where they happen to be. Today the nearest point was Rinas, and they feel deeply irritated that he did not hand them the keys.

The misunderstanding lies in the fact that they thought Edi Rama at Rinas would talk about them.

In truth, Edi Rama, like any elected prime minister, has a political duty to speak first and foremost to his own voters and to those who voted for him. He is a traitor to the socialists if he fails on the promises he made to them. He was not voted in to please those facing him, but to represent those beside and behind him.

Hence Rama’s extreme determination to move forward — backing justice against corruption and seeking to fight corruption even inside the justice system — is his obligation to those who voted for him.

Those who think Edi Rama should hand power over on a silver platter to a group of losers who feel like revolutionaries on Facebook and in memes should come to their senses and keep their feet on the ground. They face Rama to defeat him with votes and ideas, not with memes. Memes are not yet recognised as ballots.

When Edi Rama pretends to answer them, but also the real opposition in Parliament, he is in fact speaking to the socialists and his own voters.

When he attacks SPAK and its spokespeople who stage show trials, he is speaking to the socialists to lower their sensitivity to these trials. When he talks about the good work justice is doing and about individual responsibility, he is telling the socialists that power belongs to them, not to particular individuals.

When he explains the much-discussed gifts of the Prime Minister’s Office and the different approaches between him and his predecessor toward protests, political killings and corruption, he is telling his own people to feel safe with their prime minister.

So, on every topic Edi Rama spoke about, including today’s video message, he is neither trying to clarify things for the flamingos, nor for the opposition, nor for the justice system. He is trying to clarify things for his voters, so they do not bow their heads and stay motivated. It is all an effort to keep them from feeling insulted or defeated by the mud being thrown at him.

That was all of today’s statement at Rinas.

And to understand what would have happened had Rama taken the flamingos’ expectations seriously, just look at their posts before and after Rinas.

For 12 hours they were the winners, in power, while Rama was in the sky. Then Rama on the ground, and them in the sky.