Vangjeli: Europe has changed, and so has its stance towards Albania

Analyst Lorenc Vangjeli stated on the “Trialog” programme of Alba Alishani on RTSH24 that Europe has changed fundamentally and that this change has also influenced its stance towards Albania.

According to Vangjeli, the Europe of before the start of the war in Ukraine was “cynical, selfish, xenophobic and arrogant” and behaves differently today.

“Yesterday’s Europe, that is, the Europe which had begun to be, let us say, let us also put a time frame before the start of the war in Ukraine, cynical, selfish, xenophobic and arrogant. So this Europe of yesterday would look at this dichotomy between corruption and the fight against it with a different eye and would say, yes, Albania has endemic corruption. And this is a big problem that must be addressed. Today’s Europe… No, no, no, no, listen, today’s Europe, for the most varied reasons, but because its nature has changed, says that corruption is fine, but success is the fight you wage against it. It seems as if they are two sides of the same medal, two truths which exist separately, but also contradict each other,” Vangjeli declared.

Vangjeli underlined that Europe’s change is linked to the war on its eastern borders and to the geopolitical reality.

“It is not the same Europe, that is the problem. Today Europe, starting, I said once again, with the very big problem of the war on its eastern borders, with much bigger problems, but also with the philosophy that there is no vacuum… in geopolitics there is no vacuum.

And in a troubled region like the Balkans, if the actors of the West, the main actors of the West, that is the EU and the United States, were missing, unfriendly powers, whether towards the EU or towards the United States, would have ground to enter, to intervene.

So it is a changed Europe, which gives us this changed approach, which the prime minister can take for the politics of the day as a decoration, but this changes nothing in our reality. And it can be said that again, once again, Ms von der Leyen’s alternative truth is the truth,” Vangjeli said.

He added that, while Europe has changed its tone, the American Department of State remains more traditional and closer to reality, continuing to place emphasis on corruption, emigration, money laundering and organised crime.