The clash between Socialist Party chairman Fatos Nano and the PS leadership became clearer with the interview Nano gave yesterday to “Voice of America.” “The PS is a jar full of gold, but to find the gold, the pebbles on top must be removed.” The comparison—“whatever you compare it to, it limps”—has brought the main point of the chairman’s conflict with the four deputy chairmen into the open. Nevertheless, we must wait until the day after tomorrow, when the meeting of the PS General Governing Committee concludes. After the leadership’s outright opposition, Nano has pinned his hopes on this meeting. It seems Nano sensed the reaction from headquarters and therefore chose in advance the path of testing the waters. Majko, former chairman of FRESH (Albanian Eurosocialist Youth Forum), spent several days collecting signatures for the chairman’s motion. In this case, collecting signatures for a motion brings a petition to mind. This action by Pellumbi, the socialists’ first deputy chairman, was called “ridiculous.” It is uncertain whether the signatures collected will prevail in Monday’s discussion. What is certain is that the fissure[?] that appeared in this July heat in the head of the PS will turn into a crack. It seems Nano has understood that the only way to change perceptions of the PS, especially abroad, is to change not only its statutes and program, but also the party’s current leaders, who, in the ZP edition, like the word “reform.” Nano’s allusion to the pebbles is clear. The gold coins, meanwhile, have begun to glimmer relatively late. Islami, Mejdani, Majko, Lakrori and the others who support Nano’s motion make up the first layer beneath the pebbles. What if you dig further? The split in the PS has begun at the top. When Nano speaks of a jar of pebbles and gold coins, he surely has the head in mind. If the jar is large, the likelihood of finding gold coins is greater, and vice versa. But when it comes to the scales, pebbles, small or large, weigh more than jewels. Even if the operation on the head of the PS is successfully completed, the body will be next. At most of the peaks of the PS’s local pyramids are communists who yesterday spoke of socialist democracy and today speak of democratic socialism. There are people in the PS who speak of and want renewal, but there are two ways to clean up the PS so that its “jewels” can come to light: removing the pus, and moving away from the source of infection. The first path may take the PS several more five-year periods; the second much less time. L. D

On Monday, 8 July, at 10:30, a meeting of the PR National Council will be held in the press conference hall of the Palace of Congresses

A step toward perfecting parliamentary democracy The shortcomings of the electoral law continue to bear fruit even now that the new parliament has begun its work. It was precisely this law that penalized the small parties by preventing them from securing representation in Parliament with a considerable number of deputies. In this respect, the political entities that made up the Albanian Right League were hit hard, as they were deprived of the advantages that the joining of forces would have given them. Although two entities in this alliance managed to cross the parliamentary threshold, Balli Kombëtar and the Republican Party, neither of these two parties is able to form a parliamentary group on its own, based on the number of deputies each has in parliament. However, given that both parties belong to the same political spectrum and share many points in their programs, and, above all, are components of an alliance, every possibility exists that the two could agree to form a parliamentary group together. Such a step would be at least a way to break somewhat the monotony of a parliamentary bulletin whose creation has already been accompanied by repetitions. Yet the current laws governing the work of the highest legislative body still do not provide, at least for now, for the creation of a parliamentary group by different political entities. In the same way, the LDSH, created a little over a year ago, faced a number of problems in operating effectively, precisely because Albanian laws had not envisaged the union of different political entities. The fact that Balli Kombëtar and the Republican Party are entities belonging to the same party alliance may help ensure that the current law is applied flexibly, thereby encouraging a possible effort by these two parties to create a joint parliamentary group. Another parliamentary group, in addition to that of the PD, which dominates parliament, would not only add democratic nuances to parliament, but would also make the political contest in parliament more interesting and, above all, serve as a positive example for international public opinion, which has not been very satisfied with the electoral process in Albania. A.D.

Yesterday, for the first time, the head of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mlladić, was accused by a witness of having directly taken part in massacres of Muslim civilians after the fall of Srebrenica in July last year. The witness in question submitted an accusation in the “virtual” trial against Mlladić and Karaxhiç, alleging that the general had assisted in the execution of 2,000 Muslim civilians on the day after the capture of Srebrenica. The witness stated that he had escaped death by hiding among the bodies of civilians killed by Bosnian Serb soldiers. Ratko Mlladić and Radovan Karaxhiç are wanted by the Hague tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia.

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