The Balkan Cosmopolitans
One could hardly refrain from being fascinated, or perhaps more accurately, bewildered by the curious ardor that has constantly manifested among Albanian leaders.
Having ensnared their domestic challengers in a game of political impasse, they usually preen and strut on the global stage with a vitality that’s as undeniable as mildly unnerving.
It’s as if, once the theater of homegrown political strife has been systematically cleared, the next natural step is to court the global audience, an ever-watchful jury of their peers and less-than-peers.
In 2000 he emerged as a dynamic and colorful mayor of Albania’s capital, Tirana.Since 2005 he has headed his party.Now he can claim to be a Balkan star, even a calming influence in a still fragile region: witness the ructions next door in Kosovo, where the Serb minority has been railing against the ethnic Albanian majority. (Source: Albania is no longer a bad Balkan joke (economist.com))
The lyrical ballet continues as Western broadcasters, handsomely remunerated by the Albanian government, echo a refrain reminiscent of the 1960s Maoist left’s serenade for Enver Hoxha.
These silver-tongued crooners have been coaxed into a strange dance orchestrated by an unlikely duo of Western political marketeers and Albanian PR charlatans.
The song they sing, a syrupy confection of glorification and ostentatious flattery, resonates in an eerily similar pitch to the old anthems of propaganda.
Much like the enigmatic Hoxha, who, upon quelling domestic dispute in the 1970s, turned his gaze to the seemingly eternal task of legacy-making, Edi Rama is sculpting a similar monument to his persona.
Hoxha had over 250 published works, some translated by Western revolutionaries.
On the other hand, Rama has chosen a different medium to articulate his story, his brushstrokes now serving the dual purpose of crafting both canvases and his political legacy.
The infrastructure’s basic, corruption endemic, but the most powerful man in the country still finds time to doodle in his ministerial diary — and has a show at one of the world’s leading galleries. (Meet Edi Rama, Albania’s artist prime minister | Painting | The Guardian)
Yet, there’s a distinct divergence in this repetition of history.
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Rama’s internationalist crew, unlike Hoxha’s comrades, are not driven by the zealous enthusiasm of left idealism but by the unmistakably robust scent of capitalism.
Rama’s latest geopolitical exploit, his bold patronage of Kosovo, and his audacious imposition of an imported solution are yet another grand tapestry woven into his legacy project.
It is a scheme dressed in the garb of altruistic international diplomacy, but it remains a mere pawn in his elaborate game of legacy chess.
Rather than seeking a proper solution to withstand international scrutiny and historical analysis, Rama seems more interested in quick, ostentatious victories.
This is a pursuit less inspired by the urgency of Kosovo’s plight than by the irresistible allure of another feather in his cap.
Hoxha and Rama diverge from the mold cast by their predecessors, the monarch King Zog and the other long-time leader Sali Berisha.
These former rulers indulged in matrimonial unions with foreigners, a rather tricky political maneuver aimed at their advancement and strategic alliances.
Their marriages were akin to political treaties, contracts that pledged loyalty and cemented bonds with powerful foreign entities, ending badly just the same (Italy overthrew King Zog and Sali Berisha by the United States.).
Yet, Hoxha and Rama, equally calculating in their moves, have veered away from this particular path.
Instead of leveraging personal relationships for political gain, they’ve painted a more cosmopolitan image, an intricate tableau of worldly wisdom and cultural inclusivity.
Their dalliances with the outside world at this latter stage of their life are less about forging alliances of convenience and more about crafting an image.
This persona would be remembered as progressive, inclusive, and globally oriented.
