Luli was also a regular in the protests and strikes, and in addition to his engagement with the union, he was also active in Elton’s campaign. Luli continued working in the mine and after finishing his shift, he would join union leader Elton in the afternoon distributing leaflets, campaigning in remote villages in the Dibra District, or talking to Dibra residents about the importance of electing a miner MP.

“The whole district of Dibra would benefit from the Miner Status,” says Luli, who adds that the approval of the Miner Status would be valid for the whole of Albania, as that would allow for other workers’ movements to start across the country.

Bora Mema was also part of Elton Debreshi’s campaign. Mema, who is an activist in the Political Organization (PO), a volunteer-based left-wing movement, was introduced to Debreshi in 2019, when the miner asked to meet with activists from Tirana through a Bulqiza journalist. Elton had seen PO activists on television and was impressed by how they “bashed all parties.” After meeting the activists from Tirana, Debreshi told them that he wanted to meet professor Arlind Qori — who he did not know was part of the PO and was at Anjeza and Elton’s in January when Elton had decided to run.

This is where the relationship between Debreshi and PO started.

“I was more active in education issues, but after that I began to be interested in workers’ problems,” Mema recalls about meeting the miner — a meeting that increased her commitment to raise her voice for workers.

The organization, which was founded about seven years ago, has organized numerous protests, campaigns and petitions. PO activists were among the organizers of student protests in December 2018, where thousands of protesters occupied Tirana and demanded, among other things, halving tuition fees, improving living conditions, greater student representation in decision-making and vetting for professors and directors of public universities. The PO also occupied university premises, strongly opposed the Law on Higher Education, which according to them favored private universities over public ones; and campaigned to boycott certain businesses, or oligarchs as they call them, as these businesses oppress workers.

In an attempt to help Debreshi’s campaign, some PO activists relocated to Bulqiza for a month, including Mema herself.

“Nobody really expects that anyone will rent an apartment in Bulqiza,” Mema says, remembering the apartment they rented in Bulqiza along with tens of other PO activists, adding that most of Elton’s campaign was organized voluntarily.

Debreshi’s candidacy, with the slogan “Let Dibra speak so that Tirana listens,” drew international attention and found support in several European countries. The International Trade Union Confederation — consisting of 40 European unions and syndicates — saw the possible victory of the miner from Bulqiza as an opportunity to launch new political representation in European countries. Aside from that, some European political parties and individual politicians issued statements of support, visited Bulqiza and the unionists and held discussions with Elton Debreshi.

“Very glad to report that in Albania a new and incredible movement is forming. Here is Elton Debreshi, of the United Miners of Bulqiza Trade Union (SMBB) of Albania. Watch their video and support their struggle alongside the Progressive International,” is what Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek Foreign Minister and now head of the left-wing Greek parliamentary party MeRA25, European Realistic Disobedience Front, tweeted.

Elton was also supported by Inva Halili, a member of Die Linke (The Left), the Social Democratic Party in Germany. She was 15 years old when she left Albania for Austria and then moved again to Berlin, where she continues to live today. In Germany, she joined anti-fascist marches organized by students and political organizations. In 2019 she visited her birthplace of Peshkopi after 17 years away.

According to Halili, Elton’s candidacy is rare as he is not part of “political bargains,” of the SP, PD or SMI. To her, the support that Debreshi received was related to his work in the trade union over the last two years.

“It is the most well-known union in Albania and that increased its support,” Halili says.

“[And] the campaign program was aimed at improving social rights.”

Elton had also garnered support from Kosovo, which surprised him a little. ”My father enjoyed the support coming from Kosovo very much,” Elton says with a smile, as he remembers the visits and support during April from trade unionists of the Trepça mine, the Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEC) and the Kosovo Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC), or even Albanian trade unionists from Switzerland.

But beyond outside support, for Alfred Bush from the Institute for Criticism and Social Emancipation, Debreshi’s candidacy was a historic necessity and a “collective and personal decision to end history as a repetition of the oppression and exploitation of the majority at the hands of a minority.” He says that Debreshi’s lively and political interests are closely linked to those of the stratum he comes from, a stratum that has been exploited for a long time.

“He is not only subjected to suffering and exploitation as a miner, but also as a resident of a village, which they want to deprive of its forests and the rivers; he also suffers from a lack of basic infrastructure, such as roads, water or lights; he has also been exploited as a manual laborer; he also suffers as a farmer, to whom no assistance is provided by the state; he suffers from a lack of a hospital where essential services are provided; he has personally suffered the economic inability to get an education,” Bushi says.