The Italian Democratic Party reacted strongly to the Meloni-Rama agreement for bringing to Albania immigrants caught in the Mediterranean; it slammed not only Meloni but also the Albanian Socialist Party. They went so far as to declare that they would propose the SP's exclusion from the European socialist family since Edi Rama and his crew do not represent the values of the European left.

But did the Italian left revolt so much because of the SP "values" or did it react in a function of the internal power struggle? This question is legitimate since Edi Rama and his party have been in power for ten years and it seems impossible that the sister party so close to Albania was not aware of what was happening with Albanian socialists.

How is it possible that the Italian left - including the journalists close to it - do not know that during Rama's ten years tenure, which coincides pretty much with the time when the Italian Left was in power, at least 700,000 inhabitants have fled from the 2.8 million Albania?

A few more questions

How is it possible that no one in Italy has heard the warnings of the most famous Italian prosecutor Nicola Grateri about the connections of the Albanian mafia with the politics here?

How is it possible that important Italian newspapers, which today criticize Rama for the Meloni agreement until yesterday have advertised the modernization transformations of the Albanian capital without ever turning their heads to see that, in collaboration with prominent Italian studios, this 'modernization' has destroyed the historic center for skyscrapers in which the Albanian mafia and Ndrageta recycle dirty money in broad sunlight?

How is it possible that the Italians (especially the left) did not hear that Rama insisted on their left-wing Prime Minister Mateo Renzi, with whom he maintained as warm a relationship as he has today with the right-wing Meloni, so that pushed Italian businessmen to invest in Albania where "there are no trade unions to harass them"?

And, more generally, it seems impossible that Italian politicians and journalists do not yet know that in Albania, as in Serbia and elsewhere, it does not make sense to talk about left and right parties, but about party states that the more they stay in power, the more votes they win thanks to the capture of all powers, including that of organized crime.

Are they all "naive"?

Following the reactions of Athens after the arrest on the eve of local elections, of the Greek minority candidate Beleri, one cannot but bring to mind similar questions for Greek politicians and journalists: How is it possible that only after this brutal act Greece is discovering that in Albania there an authoritarian regime that collaborates with organized crime to rob Albanian citizens and where human rights are violated openly, arrogantly?

The Greek newspaper Kathimerini tries to answer these questions indirectly in an article dated December 15, 2023. I say indirectly because the article does not touch on the warm relations that the Greek PMs had with Rama before this event, but deals with Berlin's statement against Athens' veto against the opening of Albania's negotiations with the EU due to the Beleri case. According to her, Washington, London, and Berlin cannot understand that the new Albanian justice system, which they promote as "the most successful example of reform in the Western Balkans", is "becoming a political instrument" in Rama's hands. According to Kathimerini, this happens because, due to their "naivety", they have invested millions of euros and dollars in this reform. The newspaper does not say, however, that Greece was also in these positions of naivety until yesterday.

In fact, the argument that the Westerners, led by the USA, have good intentions but cannot understand the reality of these countries, circulates regularly.

Duplicity behind the showcase of "values"

There are many stories of Western investments that have failed or fallen into the wrong hands - Afghanistan is among the recent ones - but it is naive to believe that these are done out of naivety. All the more so if you consider that, in the Albanian case, the failure of the Justice reform has been talked about in European circles since a few years ago when EU emissaries advised both Kosovo and North Macedonia not to apply the Albanian-style reform, as it has created more problems than it has solved. Without denying that naivety, manipulation, and even corruption play a role in these stories - where Rama's corruption of senior FBI official McGonigal to open a trial in the US against the leader of the opposition stands out - I think that anyway, we get much closer to the truth if we stop treating the West's relations with countries like Albania, through an Orientalist approach that makes us see good, rational and just Westerners who seek to emancipate the evil, irrational, unjust Eastern thieves. These 30 years have clearly shown even in the countries of the former East, which have believed more strongly than others in the sincere commitment of the West to building democracy and the rule of law in these countries, that behind the facade of this commitment, there have been vested interests economic and geopolitical forces, open and hidden, that have imposed on Western policies the application of double language and double standards.

The "pattern" of refugee diversion

A fresh example of these policies is the "innovative model" of diversion to Albanian camps of African emigrants aiming for EU countries. In Italy, on the one hand, this model is advertised by Meloni as a way to bring Albania closer to the European family, and, on the other hand, it is explained by its people in the media as a deterrence strategy, i.e. fear of immigrants to get stuck in Albania. The validity of this model was also reinforced by the sister of the Italian DP, the German social democratic party with Chancellor Scholtz who hastened to declare that the Germans see the Rama-Meloni model with great interest. It's the same Germans for whom Kathimerini says that, after the war in Ukraine, they strongly moved to the camp of those who want a quick and immediate integration of Albania into the EU, while until yesterday they wanted to add other conditions because Albania was far from the standards. The irony is that according to the Greek newspaper, until yesterday - i.e. before the Beleri case - it was Greece that was trying to explain to the EU why "it is essential to advance the EU membership process for Albania and North Macedonia".

As if to fill the cup of double standards' language, the Western reaction to the manipulation of the elections in Serbia by the autocrat Aleksandar Vucic, until yesterday their pet, did not delay. It is clear that the silence of the West towards the complaints of the Serbian opposition, which for years has left the parliament in protest and which today is accusing the West of supporting authoritarianism in Serbia, was not broken because of problematic elections there, but to blackmail Vucic who is not distancing himself from Russia.

Westerners should be ashamed

Rama reacted to the Italian left's idea of exclusion from the socialist family by saying that if in Italy the agreement is opposed by the left, in Albania it is opposed by the right, which shows that maybe it is a just deal. After the support of the social democrat Scholtz, he no longer needed to discuss this topic.

In fact, contrary to what Edi Rama says, this agreement should be considered unfair according to the values of the European left and right, as it violates human rights. Not only that but European leftists and rightists should be ashamed to solve an issue like that of immigrants in a poor country like Albania or to use Albania as a deterrent. But it seems that they will continue to use double language and double standards by propagandizing the progress of countries like Albania in achieving democratic standards and, at the same time, supporting their autocrats as the easiest way to solve their own problems.

(*Article published in the Greek newspaper Dromos, February 3, 2024)