On 9 May, Europe Day, in front of 850 delegates, the Albanian political coalition VLEN/VREDI officially merged into a single party. Five separate parties melt into one organisation, with a common programme, common leadership and a common structure. And one main idea: that this is a „historic achievement" against DUI, which keeps failing to reform.

„With this unification, one chapter doesn't close, a new one opens - where political energy is converted into institutional power, and young people and professionals become part of the decision-making," reads the leadership statement. The words are tailored for the congress. The question is whether 850 delegates who voted for the merger actually represent the 1.8 million Albanians in Macedonia, or just the structures of five parties that were starting to bleed members on their own.

The VREDI platform put to voters includes: rule of law and the fight against corruption, economic development focused on entrepreneurs and young people, equality in institutions, efficient and digitalised administration, quality education in Albanian, and implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement. On paper - a complete liberal-democratic package. In reality - a test of whether VREDI can build what it promises.

On the other side of the debate is Ali Ahmeti's DUI. The party that represented Albanians for two decades now faces an internal reversal. VREDI calls them „to leave the old behind." Ahmeti, who boycotted the last election, now congratulates the „new party" - but there's more potential for confrontation in that congratulation than for reconciliation. Balkan politics in pure form.

The question that opened the least at the congress, but matters the most to the ordinary voter: is the merger the result of a shared vision, or the result of a calculation that five smaller parties together are bigger than one DUI? That's not cynicism. That's political arithmetic. And in the Balkans, political arithmetic usually decides the outcome of the next election, not ideological declarations from 9 May.

For non-Albanian readers, this is worth understanding: VREDI isn't a vote for „certain Albanians." VREDI is the product of 25 years of politics after Ohrid. That means every future government will have a partner with its own conditions for cooperation. And those conditions aren't the same as DUI's were. The question is whether the Macedonian parties are ready for that.