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The Socialist leader and his attempt to reach absolute power By Juli Prifti The Socialist leader, Fatos Nano, is determined to establish the Commission he himself proposed for the Stability Pact. His determination, also backed by the pink-shirted parliamentarians, has not been weakened even by the blocking of his proposal in the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy. Nano will put his proposal to a plenary session, confident that Socialist MPs will approve it without much argument. Opposition MPs do not seem to pose a problem for him, since Nano has shown in words and deeds that he pays no heed to the opposition. In his latest speech, before the local leaders of the SP, Nano spoke irritably about the existence of the opposition, emphasizing that these are the conditions and that Socialists are obliged to work with the opposition at all times. But why such insistence on the part of the Socialist leader, who has returned to this post once again after numerous maneuvers, to establish the Stability Pact Commission? Normally, everyone agrees that the Stability Pact is a gigantic project that will create many opportunities for development for Albanians, but there are standing parliamentary committees whose duties are clearly defined in the rules of the Albanian Legislature. Nano’s “trick” seems to lie elsewhere. The Commission he has proposed, while also putting himself forward as its chairman, differs clearly from the parliamentary “ad hoc” commissions established for specific matters. This Commission has been designed in such a way as to override the powers of several state institutions, such as Parliament, the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In other words, Nano is openly seeking to assume government functions, since at this point he does not seem ready to become prime minister of the sixth Socialist cabinet, a cycle that has ended in successive resignations. But will Prime Minister Meta accept Nano’s game, which is beginning to unfold clearly on today’s political stage? This is a difficult question, given the Nano-Meta duo, which has driven many SP figures out of the game, the latest being Prime Minister Majko. The current head of the Executive has shown himself to be a man of compromise among the different factions in the SP, while Nano’s voice “speaks” of considerable confidential information about almost all his potential opponents. The letters Majko sent to Nano in prison, whose publication was a decisive factor in Prime Minister Majko’s fall from the ministerial throne, make this last point quite clear. Thus, the “battle” over the Stability Pact Commission seems to be about much more than this; it appears to be Nano’s return to the helm of government.

At the TOB, the story of self-sacrifice seems to have taken on new dimensions, reaching the brink of tragedy. Eight distinguished artists from this prestigious institution have entered the third day of their hunger strike, confining themselves to the premises of the Puppet Theater, while the state remains silent. Meanwhile, last night around midnight, masked police forces entered the Puppet Theater, breaking the glass in the outer door and forcibly removing the confined hunger strikers. In the morning, the eight hunger strikers, together with conductor Ulpaj, re-entered the premises where they are confined, leaving their colleagues, who have shown strong solidarity in recent days, outside the windowpanes. P. 19 The artists on the fourth day of the strike