The digital storm surrounding the appearance of the Ndrenika – Veliaj duo in the courtroom was incredible, but also expected and predictable. A naturalistic theater scene, where the professional actor plays the man he is and not the character that the script once dictated to him, while the handcuffed politician was in the role of the real character of the personal drama conditioned by circumstances. A few moments of film, a half-dialogue and a kiss on the forehead of the human actor on the character politician were enough to understand the dramatic depth and deformation of the hateful and often illogical judgment of an extremely large part of society: the black and white division in judgment, into good and bad, into moralists and amoralists, into angels and devils. And since hate usually screams louder than love, the humor of digital society raised a storm of hatred over Robert Ndrenika and the reused mud towards Erion Veliaj.
In fact, this public process is poisoned by prejudice. At least for Veliaj, the real theater of his judicial process is still far from verifying his guilt or innocence. So far, the debate over his criminal record has been disjointed, with pieces like a mosaic, imposed and directed towards guilt over public judgment. What had happened before with his municipal directors, the involvement of his wife and her wardrobe in the process, the prejudices that have no end and above all, his political and media animosities, were part of the perfect storm against him. In the DP, they would like to see him in handcuffs for years. In the SP, certain and identified segments were also interested in the mayor of Tirana turning into the Qazim Mulleti of the left. The media was also an element of this kind of storm, in which Veliaj had managed to produce mostly false friends and real enemies. But all of this is the background of the real theater. His script has only reached the second act. In the first, the drama of his arrest and imprisonment was played out. Whether his arrest in prison was the right, proportionate and appropriate measure for his case. Its periodic verification by the courts has left Veliaj still in prison, for more than 15 months now. This arrest also called into question his mandate as mayor – in the face of his stubbornness to resign, he was dismissed by the Municipal Council – but the Constitutional Court legitimized him in office again. The second act concerns the judicial investigation, where a series of other questions will have to be answered until his status before the courts, guilty or innocent, is verified. The saga of receiving the file, the lack of familiarity with it, the glass cage and a host of other details will have to be analyzed in order to give a judgment on the trial. Was the process fair, honest, and equal? Were the rights of the individual respected in the trial? Did the presumption of innocence work for him? Was the equality of the parties in the process guaranteed, and so on. Again, up to this point in the real theater on Veliaj, it is still far from the moment to talk about his guilt or innocence for almost a dozen charges. And yet, this is the moment to understand what will happen in the future.
Erion Veliaj has his bet on time. And on waiting. Initially, he must share his fate as a citizen, with the next day as a politician. Of course, this is not easy to do. It is a rather complicated process. Initially, without falling from China, as it is said in popular jargon, Veliaj must remember that old Chinese proverb that advises patience. Patience enough to wait on the riverbank for the current to bring the corpses of enemies to the shore on its own. Although for this to happen, a lot of water must still flow under the bridges of Lana. But without revenge. Without the thirst for revenge. Because whoever sets out to take revenge must prepare two coffins and one of them is always destined to be transformed for personal use sooner or later.
As a citizen, as an individual, as a parent and as a husband, Veliaj must calculate that inside or outside the cage, with a live broadcast or behind closed doors, he will be found guilty. And in this part of the scenario, he will have to play the drama of the individual. As a politician, he must await the "fourth instance" of Albanian justice, the Strasbourg court. With mathematical certainty, in that process, his arrest in prison will be considered arbitrary and disproportionate. This will happen in the very near future. Further, with a little more luck at his disposal, due to verified procedural violations, the very fate of his criminal conviction may be called into question. At a minimum, a return of the trial with a reopening of the procedure in Tirana. But this belongs to a future that requires much more time. From one point to the next, this will be the time segment that Veliaj will need to distinguish between his few friends, initially those he has in his political family, and the enemies that come to him from everywhere. And to understand that in politics there is neither permanent love nor hatred. There is only congruence or opposition of interests. And this applies mainly to his relationship with Edi Rama, for whom he has always been convinced that they were united by mutual empathy. In fact, he must calculate whether or not he can re-enter the umbrella of the prime minister's interests again.
Everyone has thought at least once about the reincarnation of the French boy Edmond Dantes when he entered prison and his transformation into the Count of Monte Cristo when he came out of it. Veliaj will then have to re-enter his role as a man and no longer as a character in his own theater. With wounds as a citizen, but with a different kind of maturity as a politician. And he must do this even in front of an iconic professional like Robert Ndrenika, applauded on stage and screen when he played emotions dictated by the script and direction and cursed in life when he displayed his emotions as a man dictated by the heart. What remains beyond is only the history of the future that is sometimes written only by the whims of the past.
