A series of concerts, celebrations and parties are springing up in Albania now that the local elections have wrapped up and the party in majority has clearly won them. In a process of expressing gratitude to the voters the Socialist Party is organizing a series of celebratory parties in addition to a couple of high profile concerts being offered in the capital.
But who are these parties really for?
Who feels so victorious? Borrowing from master Hemingway, for whom do these [party] bells toll?
Well first and foremost, there is reason to celebrate for the many, many people that the Socialist Party engages in the form of ‘patronage providers’ and Act1vists. The former are those drafting up voters lists and granting favors whereas the latter are those competing in the infamous app for their likes, shares and reposts of the party officials content. Both have reason to breathe easy for about a year and half until the next campaign. Their results have been for lack of a better word- impressive.
Second and this really goes without saying, the party goers are the ministers, MPs and other public administration officials who are looking at their official incomes double after the new draft law was made to include them too in the salary perk up agenda. Tired and battered from the heavy task of providing so much effort for the well-being of their citizens they now must rejoice in their fair compensation of their exertion.
Third the parties are for the Prime Minister himself. He has dedicated a whole podcast to the musical ‘Notre Dame de Paris’. He also is quite happy that the Greek pop idol Nikos Vertis is performing in Tirana now that the relations with Greece at a very sour point. The newly elected mayor of Himara is to remain in prison for vote-buying allegations at least until trial. But did you know that Vertis’s real last name is Arvanitas? Which means his origin is from the Albanians of Greece? Isn’t that great news? Unbelievable.
Last and the very least are the citizens who need to be kept entertained with a circus of mind-numbing acrobatics so that they can feel good about the long line of their children in the airport as they seek the European future in Germany’s hospitals and UK’s pot-houses.
Party up!
