Political Murder Before Albanian Elections

Fatmir Xhindi, the Albanian Socialist politician, was murdered this weekend as the elections approach in 2 months time.
Xhindi was shot by men armed with AK47s near his family home in Roskovec. Xhindi was deputy leader in one of Albania’s socialist parties. Xhindi was hit with six bullets and died on his way to hospital [Reuters].

Albania has been overrun with illegal weapons since the government collapsed and lost control of state owned weaponry in 1997.

This election is seen to be important regarding Albanian progress towards EU membership, the state must prove it is able to hold clean and fair elections if it is to win EU acceptance- Albania filed for EU candicdacy only last week.

The Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said: “This ugly criminal act has not only shocked the family of the deputy, his hometown and colleagues but all Albania and Albanians,”

Xhindi’s murder has alarmed EU ministers.

“I appeal to the Albanian authorities to carry out an investigation as soon as possible”, said Joseph Daul, the french MEP.

Oli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Comissioner, said in an official statement:
“I strongly condemn the murder and extend sincere condolences to Xhindi’s family and friends”, and called for a thorough and succesful police investigation.

Another issue Albania must address prior to the election is the requirement to show ID cards when voting, whilst nearly one million citizens had not been issued with the cards, as of late April.

Albanian politics is still affected by serious corruption, a recent USAID poll concluded corruption has increased in the last 12 months and is most prevailent amongst politicians and lawmakers.

Blood feuds still occur in modernAlbania,  raising the issue of politically motivated violent retaliation, though this would surely lead to disaster ahead of the election. Even without retaliation the murder has cast a shadow on the election.

Albania has still not recovered from the eccentric policies of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who died in 1985.  As well as making Albania the world’s first legally Atheistic state, Hoxha fell out with his communist peers one by one, until Albania became totally isolated. Hoxha ran the country on a Stalinist model, complete with purges and personality cult, and through the use of paranoia of a fear of invasion.

For this reason 700,000 concrete bunkers were built to ward off potential invaders. That is one bunker for about every 4 citizens.

Some of his other policies included making private ownership of cars illegal and the banning of maps.Needless to say such policies excluded the higher echelons of party membership.

To this day there are no definitive maps of Albania and any foreigner who has tried asking a local person in Tirana for directions using a map will find Albanians do not use or comprehend them.

The Elections are scheduled for June the 28th.

Macedonia’s New Leader will struggle to solve the FYROM Farce.

UPDATE: IVANOV WON A LANDSLIDE VICTORY

George Ivanov is the candidate for the awkardly named VMRO-DPMNE party in the Macedonian election , which goes to its run-off over today. Ivanov won 35% of the vote. His opponent  Ljubomir Frckoski, of the  Social Democrat Union (SDSM), received 20 per cent of the vote.
Who ever wins will struggle to take Macedonia to the EU and Nato.

Shootings took place in Albanian areas of Macedonia during the 2008 parliamentary election but so far the election has passed peacefully, which will do no harm to Macedonia’s EU hopes, vain though those hopes may be.

The EU’s ambassador to Macedonia is Erwan Fouere.  He outlined some of the steps to be taken to take Macedonia to membership:

“One is making sure that the judiciary is really independent. The second is insuring a more effective and coordinated fight against corruption. The third is de-politicisation of the administration. Because of the highly politicized public administration, we have the phenomenon of intense intimidation of public service employees. Had there been a more independent civil service this would not be as acute as it unfortunately is.”

(3rd April)

The biggest obstacle to Macedonia joining the EU is all in the name.

Greece insists that Macedonia be referred to as FYROM, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (pronounced Firom by the Greeks, Makedoniya by the Macedonians).

This is partially because of Greek fears that by naming themselves Macedonia the…  ——ians  are entitling themselves to the province of the same name in Northern Greece.  It’s total rubbish of course, but so be it.
The larger reason however is because the Greeks see it as an attempt to steal Greece’s descendancy from Alexander the Great, son of Philip of Macedon.

Until a new identity is created within the corridors of the EU  (as if that were possible) Macedonians/ Fyromsters  are to be known as “to be defined”.

It seems absurd, however the strength of feeling within Greece should not be doubted . This fascinating discussion between students in Thessaloniki captures it well.

Greeks have the history on their side, Alexander was born in Vergina, not far from Thessaloniki and certainly in modern Greece, though Alexander spoke Macedonian, which is not Greek and certainly not the slavic language used by Makedonci/ Fyromites  Macedonians have some geographical justification as part of the ancient kingdom was inside modern ‘Macedonia’.

Macedonians are doggedly holding out, naming the Skopje airport “Skopje Alexander the Great”, presumably just to piss off the Greeks even more.

Albanians in Macedonia (so called) , of whom there are 500,000, are keen to resolve the issue as they believe EU membership would enhance ethnic equality within the country, and are calling for a compromise.
REUTERS “Imer Selmani, the Albanian candidate for president who made history in March by getting 38,000 votes from Macedonians, said 99 percent of Albanians backed a compromise and the number of Macedonians had grown from 5 to 25 percent “
May I suggest a sponsorship deal with McDonald’s? It wouldn’t hurt financially, and the corporation is yet to be represented in the similar-named country and my experience of living in the Balkans leads me to believe many Macedonians would welcome it.

I wasn’t able to find any better suggestions.

Either way, it would be nice to solve it, or else Macedonia is to be come the equivalent of symbol-era Prince- the country whose name must not be spoken.

Ivanov favours the ‘stick to your guns’ approach, whilst Frckoski advocates compromise with Greece. The election may well play out as a referendum on the issue.

Results due soon….

EU Integration fades into the distance, yet the Visa regime must change

Mirek Topolanek is the new champion of the Balkans.

Mirek Topolanek, who he?

Riding to the rescue? Topolanek (The one in a suit) may be the best hope for visa regime reform

None other than the Prime minister of the Czech republic, whose country is holding the rotating EU presidency as the moment.

What he do?
At a time when the EU’s established powers are talking about British (/French/German) jobs for British (or whatever) workers Topolanek is still talking about EU accession for the Balkan states and their fragile and isolated economies.

Lucky little Montenegro (it is de rigeur to call Montenegro ‘little’ or ‘tiny’) has been put on the Schengen white list and should be visa free by the end of the year.  Despite this, there has been no movement towards a relaxation of the Visa regime for some of the other Western Balkan countries. It will for some time prohibitively difficult for many people from Serbia, Macedonia and Albania to travel to the EU.

Bozidar Djelic, the Serbian deputy Prime Minister, was in London this week and claimed, after meeting David Milliban, Britain supported Serbian entry to the UK and would try to persuade the dutch to drop their opposition.

The difference in priorities around visas is just one of the growing divisions within the EU, as the union divides up along an East-West basis and the old-school EU members fortify themselves against the recession, lest they find themselves being dragged down further by the likes of Latvia and Hungary who have gone cap in hand to the IMF in 2009.
Angela Merkel says a period of consolidation must take place before increasing the size of the 27 nation bloc: “No one is well served in a Europe that can’t keep up with integration and takes on too many new members too quickly.”

The global economic crisis has made the European Union wary about accepting new members from the Balkans.

“Economic problems of the current global world and the EU should in no way damage our long-term objectives and the values of the European Community. If this happens, it could jeopardise the whole project,” Says Topolanek.
“”Reservations of some to further EU enlargement are in fact an insult to me, since the Czech Republic has also joined the EU only five years ago.” …”This is the greatest crisis in the history of European integration.”

Even if Topolanek continues to trumpet the expansion of the EU, the Balkan countries must help themselves if they are to aspire to EU membership.

Serbia, for example, has no excuse for its failure to hand Ratko Mladic to the Hague, and until it does so Holland will continue to thwart their ambitions.
Croatia must swallow her pride and co-operate with the EU in her border disputes with Slovenia.

Lessons have also been learnt from Bulgaria- the levels of corruption in Bulgaria have horrified EU members and there are legitmate fears the other Balkan nations are no cleaner.

It is my personal opinion that the biggest obstacle to any wannabe entrant to the EU is the fear of immigration, which always rises at a time of economic hardship.

Governments fear the flood of workers from the Balkans should they be given access to the diminishing labour market in the west.
Viewers of South Park may remember the cry:
“THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!”