It's not about where the money comes from, it's about what effect it has on Washington.

Për herë të parë në një dekadë, opozita ka mundësinë të trokasë në ato korridore ku dikur depërtonte vetëm versioni i Edi Ramës. Kjo dhe jo origjina e fondeve, është risia e asaj që ka ndodhur.

2025-04-28 10:07:00, Opinione Andi Bushati

It's not about where the money comes from, it's about what effect it

The publication of a staggering contract with a lobbying company very close to President Trump, in favor of the Democratic Party, has unleashed all the demons of power in Tirana. Some are raising their voices for violating the party financing law, another party is shouting about unmasking the millionaire Berisha, some of them are casting doubts as to whether immigrants in the US are really the donors of this agreement, and there are those who go beyond, talking about disrupting the balance in the elections.

Unfortunately, SPAK has also entered this game directed by the prime minister's palace in a rude, ugly, if not servile manner. Without having time to officially familiarize itself with the documentation, the Special Prosecution, which has not yet come up with a concussion about the Albanian money with which McGonigal was paid, has rushed to echo this media noise by announcing that it has begun verifications of the lobbying contract.

It is easy to understand that all this chaos is driven by the fear of ending the fable kept alive with billions, the one that portrayed Sali Berisha as an enemy of America.

But, for a moment, let's imagine the opposite. Let's take as real concerns what is said about the black money that supplies the opposition, about the violation of the law on party financing and that of illegal lobbying in the US. So let's think for a moment that the version given by the DP, that the source of the 6 million USD is the "Albanian-American" patriots, is false. What then?

I personally suspect that this could be an alibi and that in order to reach an agreement that leads directly to the Oval Office, Sali Berisha and his followers have stretched the law like a rubber band.

But, having said that, I am convinced that even if it did, and if it took the "short cut", the opposition was doomed to behave in this way. Since it competes on the same playing field where its main rival uses the same weapons and the same methods.

Could a political force be asked to behave differently, when we are already convinced that a lot of energy and money has been spent by Tirana to declare its leader "non grata"? Can it be asked to pretend to be a virgin, when the whole world has learned how the top FBI agent was recruited to keep up the fable of an anti-establishment party, which was fed with Russian money? What other methods can be used to avoid precedents like those when the Secretary of State rushes to consider an electoral massacre as a historic victory? How can Blinken-style statements that Rama is a "very good prime minister" and "outstanding leader" be prevented? How can the whoreish stances of Yuri Kim, who went out and campaigned against a political force and threatened its militants that they would eat grass, not be repeated?

If Washington has used extralegal methods and a lot of dollars to leave Rama the only factor on the field, the goal of the domestic opposition cannot be to organize or cleanse America, but to restore balance to its playing field. It must do everything to neither allow the persecution of the regime's opponents nor the recognition of the farcical elections.

So from this perspective, there is a more important issue than what the trumpeters of power are trumpeting, who are concerned about the source of lobbying money. The problem, before looking at their pure or dark origin, lies in the effect they would have in stopping the project of an Albanian dictatorship with American blessing.

This is precisely the shocking consequence of the revelation of the contract with "Continental Strategy" which, thanks to its connections with the new government in Washington, could take concerns about our autocracy directly to the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio or that of Trump's chief of staff, Susi Wiles. Theoretically, after this, for the first time in a decade, the opposition has the opportunity to knock on those corridors where only Edi Rama's version once penetrated.

This, and not the origin of the funds, is the novelty of what has happened. To prove this, only one fact is enough: that the noise is being made by the propagandists and spackers of the Renaissance, who have never before worried about the source of the dollars that pay McGonigal. All those who have approved the same methods for the disappearance of Berisha and the annihilation of the opposition, now give them moral support by asking them to turn the other page.

They are anxious about only one thing: that thanks to this new relationship, the end will be put to the Gogolization of an anti-American opposition that allowed them to steal the votes and wealth of this country.

This trajectory had to be interrupted even by extra-legal means. That is why the agreement signed by Carlos Trujillo, Katie Wiles and Alberto Martinez is important. If, thanks to what they will benefit, Washington will no longer be willing to recognize farce elections or continue with the theory of persecuting opponents of the regime in this country, this would be a good thing for all Albanians. It would still be so, even if it were achieved with money whose origin we do not know./ CNA