The motionists withdraw the motion. The local platform and the PS electoral organization are approved

Today European beauty will shine in Tirana. In the hall built for communist congresses, cooperative chairmen will not be seated, nor distinguished female fitters and drivers working toward the year 2001. Borrowing its radiance from the former splendour of Apollonia and Butrint, the continent will compete for the grand title. Thirty-six wonderful girls will compete, most of whom heard the name “Albania” only a few days ago. Naturally, none of them knows that five years ago, amid destruction, hunger and gunfire, this small Balkan country had tried to offer Europe a sign of civilisation, the most incredible one: beauty. A group of girls had taken to the stage for the first time, to challenge darkness and cold. They had forgotten suffering and hunger, believing that so little, in so little time, would bring them all together. And that is precisely what happened. Albania took its first step toward normal life by choosing its Miss on an evening in January 1992. No one would have believed then that Albania could host the beauty of the continent. Tradition and history have burdened it with so many sins in this regard. But life has its whims. Such whims, that the country where women had been most oppressed for centuries; today Tirana will give Europe a symbol of feminine beauty. For years, it has tried to do just that. On the covers of the magazines “Albania Today” or “The New Albanian Woman”, girls dressed like men, in overalls, with a fitter’s wrench in hand, smiled at foreign readers. Or girls in military uniforms marched toward an imaginary amphitheatre. Nothing more humiliating [?] could be known to a woman than that image. That masculinisation and the absurd legends with which her life had been filled. Today all this has been forgotten. Or, if not, they are memories sleeping in a fanatical, nostalgic consciousness. Albania has the ability to change the grand trophy. Never has it been this close. Not even last year, when Monika Zguro placed fourth on the continent. Hygerta Sako, as at the beginning, is first in the red-and-black colours. She will compete beneath the applause of an audience that has been promised 2,000 seats in the hall for days. And then amid the enthusiasm of 7 million Albanians who will watch her in front of the small screen. With the hope that Albania will show Europe that the past is past. That borders, their absurdity and their transience are just that, and that only one thing is eternal: beauty. The thing Albania has never lacked. And, naturally, will not lack today either. Because after the crown of its ugliness today. Because after the crown of its ugliness today [?] ... Albanians today need the crown of beauty more than ever. BLENDI FEVZIU

Ilir Buzi yesterday at the Tirana court photo A.BABANI

Ilir Buzi yesterday at the Tirana court; photo A.BABANI

Nehat Kulla’s imprisonment signed off — page 2 How to win at VEFA — page 11 Massacre in Fier, a family wiped out — page 13 Corruption in Omonia — page 5 Belushi’s “confession”: I’m voting for Miss Albania — page 17 photo G. SHKULLAKU