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P. 5

P. 5

P. 5

Arian MORINA The political battle this hot autumn to secure the top position at the helm of the two parties, PS and PD, is bringing to light no better economic alternative for taking the country out of the crisis of poverty, beyond euphoric propaganda. At a time when unemployment has reached more than 240,000 people registered at state offices, when wages have remained stagnant at an average of no more than USD 80 a month, when more than 90% of farms work only to meet minimum subsistence needs, when “black” work has increased as people try to put bread on the table, when thousands of children have filled the streets begging, and when the outskirts of the largest cities are filling with ghettos, the leaders of these parties, whose campaigns have reached every district, offer no alternative for solving these problems. The campaign becomes even bleaker when these leaders say nothing about why they have failed to keep the promises made so far to solve infrastructure problems: roads remain full of potholes, even though money has poured in over the past 8 years; the privatization strategy remains on paper and, for the sake of the campaign, all privatizations are being put on hold except for profitable assets such as AMC mobile phones and Telekom; tourism potential is not being used, while neighboring countries earn millions of dollars from this sector every year. And that is not to mention the damage being done to the state by corruption through sham tenders, or abuses for the direct benefit of those in power, such as building villas, buying factories, and countless trips abroad with large sums of dollars taken from poor Albanian taxpayers—or the failure to keep at least the promise to provide the “maximum possible” amount of the money people lost in the pyramid schemes. Even an economic alternative such as the restitution of property seems to be convincing the true owners that this card has always been played on them on the eve of election campaigns, only for everything to be forgotten afterward. The alternatives of the two main parties, which are conducting their campaigns under the slogans “we want a strong party” or “let’s strengthen unity,” despite this—one more than the other—and the power struggles taking place within them, bring to mind nothing more than Communist propaganda filled with euphoric slogans, at a time when people are selling their belongings out of desperation to secure the means of subsistence. P. 2

P. 3 [note in illustration: 24-9-99] Will the Peace Treaty with Italy be denounced?

Interview with the Secretary General of the Venice Commission P. 5

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