Radical Right-Wing Political Parties and Groups
The rally of the Red-Black Alliance in Tirana.
The main Albanian nationalist far-right party is the “Red and Black Alliance” (RBA), which was created on March 20th 2012, replacing a public movement with the same name that was founded in March 2011. However, after the disastrous results of the 2013 elections, its activity plummeted drastically and even the organisation’s official website barely received any updates during the monitored period.
The party’s rhetoric mainly revolved around the so-called Greater Albania project, which is the idea of incorporating the Albanian-populated lands in Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro. On October 1, it was reported that new Albanian school textbooks contain a map of neighbouring territories that “rightfully belong to Albania”. This includes the territories of Greece, Serbia and Macedonia. The geography textbook also contains a chapter – “Albanian Lands in Greece”, which assets that “North-Western Greece, from Florina to Preveza must belong to Albania”. Nevertheless, there have been no statements aimed against local ethnic or religious minorities in Albania.
The idea of “The Great Albania” is reasonably popular in the country (in 2012 it was supported by 64% of the interviewed). It was exactly these views that motivated the leader of the far-right radicals K. Spahiu to reform his public movement into an official political party in 2012.
However, as it often is with such situations, far from everyone who empathises with the national idea is willing to support the far-right radical parties that exploit it to their advantage. In December 2012 14% of the interviewed claimed to be willing to vote for the “Red and Black Alliance”, yet in June 2013 only 0.59% of the electorate actually gave their voices for it. This indicates that radical nationalists do not have much real influence over the Albanian society – voters, even if concerned with the national idea, still understand the importance of other more pressing issues. Interests of Albanian citizens are currently more in the field of European integration, which, they are hoping, will improve the economic condition of the country and will provide them with certain social benefits. Right now they are more concerned with the corruption level than with the idea of “The Great Albania".
