Democrats form special groups. Socialists warn of cannon fire Greece tears apart poor Shpresa. Today, the National Team’s challenge The Constitution, the co-governing agreement

By Sabri GODO Efforts to draft the Constitution began six years ago. The two previous versions failed because of extreme politicization. In the last 13 months, the Commission established by Parliament managed to draw up a draft by reconciling the parties’ views on key chapters and articles, and on 18 October last, after a lengthy debate, it was approved by Parliament. The Democratic Party (PD), the main opposition force, and two other parties aligned with it did not take part in drafting the document or in the parliamentary debate because of disagreements and political tensions. Only after the draft had been approved by Parliament did the PD begin making its objections to the draft public. I consider it necessary to provide these explanations as Co-Chairman of the Commission for drafting the Constitution, which, as in every free and civilized country in the world, constitutes the framework for human rights and the civic agreement on shared governance. I would like to add that, from beginning to end, we have received the full assistance and cooperation of the Council of Europe’s “Democracy through Law” Commission, with which we have examined in detail the 183 articles of this Constitution. We have had fruitful cooperation. Continued on page 4

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Drawing: Medi Belortaja