Through a post on her Facebook account, MP Elisa Spiropali published a motion submitted to the National Assembly of the Socialist Party, through which she calls for the launch of a “National Dialogue” for what she calls a “New Agreement for Albania.”
Spiropali explains that the focus of the motion is the need for a new phase of Albanian democracy, where institutions are stronger than individuals.
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In this document, which comes at a time of protests and civic discontent, Spiropali calls for a deep reform of the Socialist Party itself and a change in the model of exercising power.
Full post:
“Following media interest, I am sharing with you the Document I sent today to the National Assembly of the Socialist Party, open to all members and all citizens.
To the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Socialist Party Edi RAMA
To the National Assembly of the Socialist Party
To the Membership of the Socialist Party
To the Parliamentary Group of the Socialist Party
MOTION FOR THE OPENING OF NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON THE NEW AGREEMENT FOR ALBANIA
PART I
Albania has entered a decisive historical, political and social moment. Institutions are functioning, the economy continues to grow and democratic processes are developing regularly. However, Albanian society is demanding a new phase of its democracy: more representation, more participation, more trust in institutions, more social justice and a fairer relationship between the citizen and the state.
This is a demand that cannot be ignored. In a mature democracy, civic energy is not seen as a threat, but as an opportunity for reflection, self-correction, improvement.
Democratic societies are not strengthened by silencing critical voices, but by creating institutions that know how to listen to them, understand them and respond with reforms.
This is exactly what the times we are living through are asking for. Not less democracy, but more. Not more control, but more trust. Not more personalization of power, but institutions stronger than individuals. Not privilege, but merit. Not closure, but competition. Not self-satisfaction, but self-correction. More humility, less arrogance.
Albanian society demands more competition and less privilege. More merit and less personal loyalty. More institutions and less personalization. More representation and less concentration of decision-making. More economic competition, less favoritism. It demands a state where the law is above power and where power is not identified with anyone.
This is the democratic culture we must build. The transition from the culture of the individual to the culture of the institution. From the administration of power to the self-limitation of power. From the belief that the majority is always right, to the belief that democracy is strengthened only when power accepts control, criticism and correction.
For weeks, a civic energy that demands to be represented has been appearing on the streets of Tirana. A political and social mobilization, especially from the young generation, that cannot be ignored without consequences.
The governing majority should not see this as noise to be suppressed and ignored, but as a moment of reflection for Albanian democracy. We believe that every democratic society becomes stronger when institutions have the courage to listen to their citizens, even when they express dissatisfaction, demand change or challenge the way power is exercised.
Our responsibility is not to judge this voice. Our responsibility is to listen to it, understand it and respond with more democracy, more representation, more accountability and more trust. This is precisely where the reason for this motion begins.
In these years, Albania has built political stability, stronger institutions and a more developed economy. But every political model has its cycle. The system that built stability does not necessarily produce more representation, more competition and more space for the new energies of society.
The political agreement of 2008 served the institutional stability of its time. Today, the limits of that model have become visible. It no longer creates the same space for competition, contest and participation that Albanian society demands.
Albania does not need a new transition. It needs a new phase of its democracy. A phase where economic development goes hand in hand with political democratization; where power accepts its own limits; where institutions gain more authority than individuals; where meritocracy replaces privilege; where the state is strengthened through self-correction and not through self-defense.
It is for this reason that the opening of the National Dialogue for the New Agreement for Albania is proposed.
Not as a party document and not as a government program, but as a national process aimed at renewing the relationship between the state, institutions, politics and citizens.
This process must begin with the readiness to reform the way power is exercised, to strengthen institutions, to expand representation, to restore trust and to create a new political culture, where self-purification is a sign of strength and not weakness.
Only a Socialist Party that reforms itself can ask Albanians for a new agreement with the state. Only a Socialist Party that paves the way for new energies, new representation, can credibly respond to the message coming from society. Only a Socialist Party that demands accountability from those who exercise power on its behalf can be competitive and winning, not because of the strength of power, but because of its ideas, credibility and values.
Therefore we propose that this process not be limited only to the political leadership of the Socialist Party, but be subjected to an open consultation with all its membership.
Albania needs a new agreement with its citizens. The Socialist Party has the obligation to first make its new agreement with itself. Only in this way can we overcome the crisis of power, regain citizens’ trust and respond with democratic responsibility to the voice heard today on the streets of Albania.
On this conviction, the Socialists must undertake commitments to themselves.
PART II
The Commitments of the Socialist Party to Itself
No New Agreement for Albania can be credible if it does not start from the Socialist Party itself, the country’s governing majority. The change we seek for Albania must begin with the way we organize, how we compete and how we exercise political responsibility within ourselves. For this reason, the Socialist Party undertakes these commitments.
1. To become the most democratic party in Albania.
The democracy we demand for the state must begin with our own political organization.
2. To guarantee free, competitive and periodic elections at every level of organization.
No function should be permanent and no responsibility should be uncompetitive.
3. To restore debate as a political culture, away from extreme personalization and closed decision-making.
The forums of the Socialist Party must be places where ideas are confronted, not merely where decisions are approved.
4. To guarantee the representation of different opinions, currents and political sensibilities within the democratic left.
Pluralism of ideas is a source of strength, not a cause of weakness.
5. To build meritocracy as the fundamental rule of political promotion.
Political careers must be based on work, integrity, knowledge and public contribution.
6. To create more space for the young generation.
Young people should not be just participants in campaigns, but participants in decision-making.
7. To strengthen the autonomy of its forums and organizations.
Party organizations must have a real role in shaping policies and not function only as mobilizing structures.
8. To promote the ethics of public responsibility.
Political functions are not privileges. They are responsibilities towards citizens and towards the Socialist Party itself.
9. To establish transparency as a standard of decision-making.
Important political decisions must be built on consultation, argument and accountability.
10. To remain a party that continuously reforms itself.
History has shown that parties do not weaken when they change; they weaken when they believe they no longer need to change.
11. To clearly separate the Party from the State.
The Socialist Party commits to strengthening the distinction between political organization and state administration. The administration must serve the law and the citizens, not political cycles or individuals with power. This is a condition for a modern state and a credible democracy.
Only a party that has the courage to reform itself can ask Albania to enter a new phase of democratic development.
It is precisely on this conviction that we propose the Commitments for the New Agreement for Albania.
PART III
Commitments for Albania of the Next Decade
European Albania is not only our political destination. It is the model of the state we want to build, and the way we want Albanians to live. An Albania where every citizen feels free, represented and protected by the law. An Albania where democracy is measured by the quality of institutions, by the separation of powers and by the trust that citizens have in their state. This is exactly the Albania that the New Agreement for Albania aims to embody.
Albania has entered a new stage of its history. The last thirty-five years have been the years of building democracy, the market economy, institutions and the country’s European orientation. We have a much more developed economy than the one we inherited at the beginning of the transition. Albania today is stronger, more open and safer than at any other period of its democratic history.
But every historical stage brings its own questions. Today’s Albania no longer demands only development. It demands a different quality of the state. It demands a democracy that listens more, institutions that are trusted more, justice that acts more freely and a power that has the courage to limit itself. It demands an economic model away from polarization and clientelism, closer to equality of opportunity.
Therefore we believe the time has come to open a new national process, not to write another political program, nor to produce a party document, but to build a new agreement of trust between the state and the citizen.
This agreement does not start from the question of who will govern Albania, but from the question of how Albania should be governed in the decades to come.
This motion opens the process of the National Dialogue for drafting the New Agreement for Albania, which will be presented for public debate to citizens, universities, experts, business, civil society organizations, the diaspora and all political forces.
We believe this agreement must be built on several fundamental commitments that will serve as the axis of the national debate.
European Albania begins with national and local elections that produce trust, institutions that deserve trust and a state that limits its own power through law. It is on this philosophy that the following commitments are built:
1. Elections that produce trust
The first commitment is the construction of a state that knows how to set limits on itself. Albania no longer needs to build power. It needs to build mechanisms that control power. The strength of a democracy is not measured by the concentration of authority, but by the ability to distribute it among strong and independent institutions.
2. A democracy that listens
The second commitment is a democracy that listens. Protests, the opposition, the media, universities and civil society are not obstacles for the state. They are the ways through which the state corrects itself. Democracy is not weakened by criticism. It is weakened when it loses the ability to hear it.
3. Parliament at the center of democratic life
The third commitment is the return of Parliament to the center of democratic life. The Parliamentary Republic is not measured by the number of votes the majority has, but by the quality of debate, by the oversight over the government and by the ability to build agreements that serve the public interest.
4. Independent justice and the fight against impunity, corruption and crime
The fight against corruption, abuse and impunity is no longer just a criminal process. It is the moral foundation on which trust in the state is built. Justice must be free to investigate anyone and politics must learn to live with this normality. Corruption is fought not only in the prosecution and the courtroom, but must be inextricably linked to political responsibility for good governance.
5. The final separation between the state and the party.
The public administration must build its professional identity, based on merit, knowledge and accountability. The state cannot change its face after every political cycle. Individuals, business, society, must be free to act without the constraint of power or individuals with power.
6. Professional administration in the service of the citizen. The liberation of public administration from the culture of privilege
A public official must bear more responsibility than power. Trust in the state is not built by protecting leaders, but by making them more accountable to citizens, far from arrogance, corruption, abuse.
7. Economy of competition and merit
Competition must weigh more than closeness to politics. The state must not choose the winners, but must guarantee equal rules, legal certainty and a market where success depends on work, performance, innovation, entrepreneurship.
8. Education that builds merit.
Albania cannot build the future by losing every year the best part of its talents. Education must be the place where meritocracy is born and where every young person feels that their future can be built in their own country.
9. Healthcare with dignity
Investment in infrastructure is essential. But trust is built only when the citizen feels that the system treats them with the same respect and the same equality.
10. Free media
A strong democracy does not need media that affirm the power, but media that have the freedom, opportunity and authority to hold it to account.
11. An electoral system that restores representation.
We need an electoral and political system that guarantees broader representation, fairer competition, real opportunities for ideas, energies, new alternatives.
The closed system that stems from the 2008 Agreement is alive, but its positive effects for the country have died. We must aim for a National Proportional System with open lists, preceded by internal democratization processes of political parties.
12. A new political culture
We need a new political culture. A culture where power is not identified with eternity, where the opponent is not treated as an enemy, where compromise is not considered weakness and where change is not seen as a threat, but as a condition for the development of a healthy democracy.
This agreement does not aim to replace the Constitution, political programs or the identity of political forces. It aims to build a new consensus on how the modern Albanian state should function in the decades to come.
European Albania is not built only by fulfilling European Union standards. It is built when these standards become the daily culture of institutions, politics and the relationship of the state with the citizen.
Albania does not need a new electoral contract, but a new contract of trust. A contract within which development goes hand in hand with democracy, the economy with justice, power with self-limitation, freedom with responsibility.
With this conviction we propose that the Socialist Party initiate the opening of the National Dialogue on the New Agreement for Albania.
We invite every citizen, every institution and every political force to be part of this process.
The New Agreement for Albania does not begin with the promise to change the country. It begins with the serious commitment to change the way power is exercised.
We believe that this governing majority and the Socialist Party have the opportunity to win through values and not through force. Let us do everything possible to place the state above the party and Albania above everything,” Spiropali wrote.
