Rama Presents the “Faithful Presence” Annex and Warns the Socialist Party: Parties That Failed to Listen to Citizens Ended Up Losing

Prime Minister Edi Rama presented the “Faithful Presence” annex to members of the Socialist Party. Drawing on examples from European and global political history, he urged the Socialists to listen constantly to the citizens who voted for them, stressing that parties that governed with “closed ears” had suffered defeat.

Rama said the expanded meeting was continuing in the form of a discussion. According to him, the Socialists already have the “Besa” strategic document in their hands, while “Faithful Presence” is its annex and focuses solely on the party.

“Today I want to talk about our party machine. With the reflection in the mirror of Flamingo Boulevard, I also spent some time in the graveyards where the stories of parties that won everything, but then lost their string of victories, lie buried. All the gravestones in those cemeteries bear the same inscription: power cost them their hearing,” he said.

The prime minister cited the example of Barack Obama’s party, which had 200 patronage workers and 13 million addresses belonging to people connected to the cause. Three months after the victory, the network was put at the service of the White House agenda. In the midterm elections, the machine that had amazed the world suffered one of its heaviest blows, while Obama acknowledged this as one of his greatest failures.

Another example was Brazil’s Workers’ Party, which had implemented participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre. Members determined where the funds would be used, and the people voted for the party for four consecutive terms. It later won Brazil, but the political force that taught the world the importance of listening lost its own city.

In Europe, Rama mentioned Emmanuel Macron, who built his party in record time with the help of 5,000 volunteers. Citizens were asked five open-ended questions about what was not working in France, and their answers were turned into a political platform.

He also referred to Podemos in Spain, which grew to half a million members, but only 19,000 participated when it came time to vote. Meanwhile, according to him, the Five Star Movement mocked traditional parties and entrusted a private company with drafting its platform; when the debates began, it remained in the coalition.

“Five countries and five parties, but the same disease. They began by listening, then governed with closed ears; they rose quickly and fell just as quickly. At first glance, this sounds like ‘Faithful Presence,’ just as a diseased eye and ear can be distinguished from healthy ones. The party fixer is called a broker, and the people know that office doors are opened with the broker’s key,” Rama declared.

According to him, rust may appear to be an inevitable process, but in fact it is not. He stressed that this has happened even when parties appeared to be shining, as in the case of Sweden’s Social Democratic Party.

Rama also mentioned the party in Singapore, which has followed an unchanged rule for more than 60 years. Meetings begin in the evening and end at midnight, while letters are sent out. People attend as though they were going to church or a mosque, so that they can be heard by their elected representatives.

“In this context, the Socialist Party can be neither Puntero’s office, nor a church, nor an expression of nostalgia for the mass parties of the past,” he concluded.