Albania that cannot turn its head north

Because he remembers himself in Enver's time. The 3600 twist route, the polluted Comani and an unconscious racism denying development to the part of Albania that has given more than it has received

When I got off that old Kukes street a few days ago, I felt a feeling that was not related to politics, nor to homesickness. It's a shame. Shame this road still existed. Shame that it is the only route for hundreds of North villages. Shame that, in 2025, I walked the same route that Enver Hoxha's heavy trucks walked in 1975.

The road is so crooked, so cruel, it's no longer an infrastructure issue: it's a matter of humanity. It's not human to live there. And it's not human government from Tirana and pretending that way doesn't exist.

We're stuck here. Like 1975.

The old Kukes ' street, which has remained old with 3600 curves, has left its beauty in Enver Hoxha's time. Then there was no other option. Today, the Nation's road has solved the problem with Kosovo, but not with Tropoja and villages there. Either they have to go down to Gjakova and take the nation's route or many villages take the worst route to safety in the world.

This is easy political racism. It's not deliberate, it's indiscreet. That's why people suffer and have to leave that beautiful part.

The same feeling hits me every time I stop at Lake Koman. A natural marvel, but with a stop platform that resembles a forgotten bus stop in some suburb of the world's poorest country. Tourists photograph nature and avoid reality. Because where the boats go it's pollution, it's chaos, it's a total lack of care. It's not aesthetic. It's institutional shame.

And if this is a coincidence, it's a coincidence that happens very often in the same geography: the North. And for too long.

It's the same. How is it possible that thousands of tourists have gone to the parking grounds? If the first is a coincidence, why isn't the second one a coincidence? This doesn't look like Renaissance.

The north has many renomad businessmen in Tirana who should think about their background. Their firms are among the largest in Albania, but their background lives in medieval infrastructure conditions. This government that is now created dares not, has no right, nor should it say that we have done more for the North than governments have. Whatever they did, it doesn't look like Renaissance projects.

In this part of the country, people live with dignity but without the dignity that the State owes them. The Nation's road has become modern, has become worthy of connecting Kosovo with Albania. But not to connect North villages with Albania. The irony is that to get into your country, you have to go through another country. This is a law reality that is not for me.

The citizens of Tropoja descend to Gjakova to take the road that leads to Tirana. It's like a silent metaphor of a state that has no courage to look behind the mountain.

The Renaissance credit is that it made south of Albania. As always there, there has always been a fear that it could not develop because Greece did not allow it. Rama won the battle in the South and went beyond the Renaissance. He dismissed the idea that the beaches are Greek, but are on Albanian soil. The battle was structural and national policy.

But this unsavory racism with the North must be permanently closed. He's right there. Residents live and experience it every day. Show the 3600 turns.

This government can tunnel into the national highway. Or let them think as they please. But this has to be done.

Meanwhile, Albania's most powerful businessmen come from that land.

Shefqet Kastrati, Rame Geci, Hajri Elezi, Haxhi Bardhi, Union Ulaj, Mak Gjini, Avni Ponari, Fatmir Duraku, Kadri Morina, Rok Djoma. They have built economic empires in a country that são has given no way to take their children on holiday to their homeland. And yet, that land has forgiven the country more than it asked for. But this silent draw is a lie. Because their success does not compensate for abandoning the North.

The Valley of Valbona is one of Albania's most beautiful natural assets, part of the <x0->Bjeshks of Nemuna”
Business taxes from the North are the foundation of many projects in the South. But the North itself has remained in the static of underdeveloping. At first glance, their success may seem to indicate no discrimination for the area. But that is not so. It's not just a matter of perception. It's a matter of forgetting.

This is the moment you no longer question. It only requires decision. Albania cannot be complete without the Milot Shkodra road built as a highway. And it can't be fair without a tunnel linking North villages with the Nation Road, which opens to it three doors to development, not just the way to escape.

If this new government does not, let him know that it is no longer a matter of help. It's about atonement. And if the Renaissance won the South, then the time is to search for the North, not with words, but with asphalt.

Postscriptum

I know that Albania of the year of democracy has been behind other European countries more than a hundred years. And there is no doubt that he has made an extraordinary journey. Today, many things are better. Infrastructure, access to technology, tourism, urban centres have taken steps that no one denies.

Yet, it is not enough. Because people do not simply flee from lack of bread. They escape from a lack of quality. We need to invest deeply in education and health because it measures the trust a country gives its citizen. And there's the wound.

But above all, we need some of Albania to reach the next Albania. Let there be no more one country that lives in 2025 and another still in 1990. Because the same has been the separation that we felt when we compared with Europe at the beginning of democracy: we felt out of time.

Today, it is no longer Europe that shames us. It's the rest of Albania. And this is no longer a matter of comparison. It's a call for justice.