Recently, articles in the left-wing press and statements by politicians in this grouping have begun to spread the argument that the Albanian electorate is supposedly a “lump” belonging to the Left, and that for this reason the Right has no electorate. This argument is justified by the fact that Albania’s population is mostly poor and that, according to their logic, the poor vote only for the Left!! This argument is so inaccurate that it would not really be worth discussing if it were not also being used by politicians who try not to be known for political speculation, such as Mr. Gjinushi. We will try to argue that the claim being made is not correct. If the poor voted for the left-wing parties and the rich for the right-wing ones, then the Right would hold power neither today nor in the past in any country in the world, precisely because the poor everywhere in the world make up the majority. Naturally, here we are speaking of relative poverty. On the other hand, it is known that the Left’s electoral base is the working class, which in Albania practically does not exist; according to this logic, the Left should be the one having trouble with the electorate, not the Right. If we look at Western European countries, we will see that the wealthier countries have in power parties that stand further to the left on their countries’ political spectrum, while the less developed European countries have right-wing parties in power. The reason for this is simple: wealthy countries have a powerful class of property owners and give preference to parties with developed social programs. In countries where economic development is not as stable, right-wing parties are in power; they give priority to creating a wealthy class. But social policy makes sense only in a country where capitalists have become so powerful that they truly pose a “threat” to the poorest. In a country like ours, where the capitalist does not exist or is still very weak, whom do the left-wing parties want to protect the worker and peasant from? The ogre from fairy tales?! Albania will need to pursue a strong right-wing policy for a long time, one that will create the conditions for the formation of a capitalist class, so necessary for the progress of this country as well as every other country in the world. And we are fighting for the day to come when this class will grow so strong that a left-wing party can go before the electorate and say: enough of this policy that is favoring the capitalists, who have grown so powerful. It seems that things stand differently today, and that day is still very far away. To say that a left-wing policy is needed in a country that does not have its own capitalist class is like saying that refrigerators are needed at the North Pole (or the South Pole). Continued on p. 3 Dr. CERCIZ MINGOMATAJ Dr. CERCIZ MINGOMATAJ and say:

. This time, “Koha Jonë” and “Gazeta Shqiptare” have compelled the People’s Assembly to respond to a request asking Foreign Minister Serreqi to explain the recent changes in the diplomatic corps. The matter arose from an interview with the deputy chair of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Bashkim Zeneli, who had asked Serreqi to present the reasons for changing diplomatic personnel at some of our embassies. However, more than protesting against Zeneli, the People’s Assembly is protesting the way the interview with Mr. Zeneli was interpreted by our two daily newspapers. The clarification distributed by the Press and Information Office of the People’s Assembly states that, under the rules, meetings of the People’s Assembly committees are valid when more than half of their members are present, while Mr. Zeneli’s proposal or idea was presented as a “conversation” and not as a proposal. The clarification in question also states that under existing laws the dismissal and appointment of diplomatic representatives fall within the competence of the President of the Republic. In light of this last fact, it is worth emphasizing that, given the state of our diplomacy, the lack of specialized personnel and the difficult problems they are obliged to face, it would be better to have greater transparency in their appointments, creating room for comments and suggestions from those appointed, as well as for proposals. Incompetent representatives in various countries have by now become a common occurrence in our diplomacy. This was confirmed by the wave of mass changes in our missions recently. For this reason, there would be nothing wrong with having them vetted by the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee before the President makes a decision.

To cover the proceedings of the First Congress of the People’s Democratic Party of the Albanians in Macedonia and to report on other events of interest from the Albanian-inhabited area in Tetovo, a team from Albanian Radio and Television, led by journalist Bujar Muharremi, arrived here. Although equipped with a residence permit and the necessary accreditation from the Information Ministry of the Macedonian government, the team was subjected to unprecedented harassment by the Macedonian police.

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The Serbs choose the path of force p. 6

Tehran A new law will be introduced to regulate the sale of newspapers, even in the mountains and plains. The newspaper that has the most readers in the forest will be printed free of charge at the new printing house that will come from the USSR as a gift to the constructive opposition press—which also raises the question of whether it exists or not. Those who say it exists say so with specific intentions. Those who say it does not exist also do so with specific intentions. Even those who remain silent have their own specific intentions. The only ones with no particular intentions are those who make the democratic and most independent newspaper. Today the hunger-strike campaign will begin. Over these four years, conditions for hunger strikes have improved greatly. Before, hunger strikes were much poorer, with food shortages. Back then, you could go on strike by not eating your usual yogurt, whereas now you can do so by not eating sausages. Poland has received even less: only 46 old lekë. This does not include assistance for the electronic voting system, which the opposition has asked to be installed throughout the country...