EDITORIAL – The State Under Mafia: Albania at the Breaking Point and the Time of Nacionali
By Flamur Bucpapaj
The success of Botimet Nacional at the Book Fair was a powerful signal that no one can ignore anymore. In a country where the media have become loudspeakers for those in power and culture is used as political decoration, the fact that citizens lined up in front of Nacionali’s stand was a civic miracle. That line was not just for books—it was a line for truth, for outrage, for a hope that cannot be bought with government contracts.
Selling out all my books was a clear vote—not for me as a writer, but for the idea that Albania needs a new path. A path not controlled by political mafias, not serving organized crime, not dependent on debt or propaganda.
The Albanian people have spoken. And what they said is simple:
“We are tired of you. Your time is over.”
Albania Held Hostage—not by Politics, but by a Mafia Class
For many years, Albanians have been living under a silent mafia regime, where the state is a tool, power is plunder, and politicians are merely managers of an all-encompassing criminal enterprise. In this enterprise, the citizen is not a shareholder—they are domestic consumption.
Every vital sector of the country has been turned into a cash mill for a handful of people:
The environment has been destroyed by unchecked concessions and mining.
Healthcare has been used as a large channel for public theft.
Education has been ruined to produce silent citizens, not critical ones.
The police often act as security guards for the new political mafia.
Courts have been used as both their shield and their whip against opponents.
This system is not accidental. It is strategy.
To maintain power, the political mafia created a patronage network that registers people like livestock, monitors them, threatens them, exploits them, and silences them. This mechanism is more sophisticated than anything even communist regimes achieved.
Culture, Books, and Art – Battlefield of the Political Mafia
When Botimet Nacional rose as an independent voice, the mafia’s reaction was immediate. Former Minister Margariti—removed from office—became the spokesperson for what is called the “cultural front of power.” Her patronage network, once pretending to defend culture, transformed into mercenaries of dictated speech.
They attacked Nacionali not because they had anything against me, but because Nacionali is free.
And the mafia cannot tolerate freedom.
Where is the “flower of art” they promised with millions of euros?
It is where all their promises are: in ashes, concrete, façades, and lies.
No mafia system allows culture to be free—because free culture destroys tyranny.
Depopulation – the Political Mafia’s Greatest Victim
Albania today faces its most severe demographic crisis since wartime.
Why?
Because the political mafia has created a country without prospects. A state where:
Young people feel invisible,
Professionals earn as little as café assistants in Europe,
Farmers have no market,
Citizens have no justice,
No one trusts the future.
Is it an accident that 800,000 Albanians have left in a decade?
No.
It is a consequence.
It is a bill.
It is an open wound caused deliberately by the political mafia.
Because an empty country is
The Time of Nacionali – Not for Compromise, but for Confrontation
I was far away, in the U.S., watching from a distance as my country slipped from its hands. I saw Albanians who want to return but are afraid due to the absence of hope. I saw diplomats who love Albania more than many of those governing it.
And then I decided to return.
Because the time for confrontation has come.
And Nacionali does not come for deals.
It does not come for bargains.
It comes to break the mafia circle that has surrounded Albania.
We are not a party of the old class.
We are not tied to clans.
We are not indebted to clients.
Nacionali is the only political project that can be built on:
Real justice,
Clean economy,
National strengthening,
Full alliance with the U.S. and EU,
Restoration of the dignity of the Albanian state.
Meetings – Returning to Where It All Began
Our meetings with supporters will begin at the University of Shkodër. Where students have invited me. Where in 1991 I awarded a title that was never properly honored.
I call on:
Young students,
Honest professors,
True Decemberists,
Independent intellectuals,
Free citizens,
to return to where we left off in 1990 and carry forward the project that was never allowed to finish: the return of a free Albania.
I will go to Tropojë, to confront those who today pose as “environmental defenders,” but yesterday protected neither themselves nor the city.
I will go to Vlorë, where every patriot knows what sacrifice is.
I will go to the South, to the North—anywhere truth is needed.
The Red Shadow Is Still Here – But the End Is Near
The red shadow of transition, corruption, drugs, and clientelism still lingers in institutions. But that shadow no longer has the power it once had. Because Albanians are awakening.
The truth is simple:
The political mafia had its turn for many years.
Now it is Albania’s turn.
Their time is ending.
The time of a just Albania is approaching.
The time of Nacionali has come.
