The anti-bubble of neo-Marxism

By Flogert Muca

What American left-wing media framed as the “War of the Flamingos” against the development of Zvernec was, in Tirana, an attempt to sell it as an ecological awakening. But anyone who knows even a little of the social and economic psychology of Albanians easily understands the absurdity of this trick: to ask a people who suffered Europe’s most savagely communist experiment to return to neo-Marxist romanticism is simply an inability to read reality.

The start of this story had nothing to do with the troubles of Albanians, but its continuation was certainly about their entirely legitimate troubles. It was born as an ideological export of American left-wing radicalism, which used Zvernec as a ring for its own electoral battle against Donald Trump and Jared Kushner. It was a pure instrumentalisation of framing: an emotional symbol such as the flamingo was taken to feed the narrative of “greedy capitalism” destroying nature. And this narrative was quickly packaged for distribution on Tirana’s boulevard.

Naturally, the square filled up. But here lies also the biggest misunderstanding of the organisers and of those who rubbed their hands behind this framing.

Albanians did not take to the square because they suddenly woke up as neo-Marxists or defenders of the economic status quo. They took to it because they have thousands of real problems with everyday life, with the management of public space, with transparency and with trust in institutions. Zvernec and the flamingo framing were simply the fuse, or the instrument, that ignited the accumulated discontent to bring people out of their homes.

But clinging to the neo-Marxist ecological narrative fails where the logic of Albanian society begins. In its economic DNA, today’s Albanian is deeply pro-capitalist, pro-development and pro-free enterprise. After decades of isolation, forced poverty and state control over every breath, Albanians have rejected once and for all the model that sees development as an enemy and property or capital as a sin. They want jobs, they want investments, they want five- and seven-star hotels, they want modern infrastructure, private property, and they want their country to be part of the global development map.

Our society, in its overwhelming part, is radically anti-communist in its concept of the economy. Our citizens know well that protecting the environment and the public interest does not mean blocking capital, but managing it wisely.

Therefore, the attempt by domestic and foreign neo-Marxists to turn the boulevard protest into a revolution against the free market had an expiry date. People may use any pretext to protest against those in power, but they will never follow those who seek a return to the past in the name of ideological utopias. Albanians may fill the square to demand more justice and accountability, but their strategic choice is clear: they want development, they want capitalism, and they want the future.