The untoppled pyramids, Berisha’s double six. Malaj: “Transparency puts Albania at risk” Page 3

By Skënder Minxhozi Yesterday Vranicki landed for the fourth time at Rinas Airport under the banner of the OSCE High Representative. After meeting Fino and having dinner with him, he is expected to begin today at the Rogner Hotel a series of meetings that may determine when and how we will vote. Preparations for this visit have been under way for days in the offices of the Albanian state, and this is not difficult to see. The ambassador of the former Austrian Chancellor in Tirana, Grubmajer, has been extremely busy with contacts and meetings at every level and with all the parties who have some influence over the great Albanian chaos. Nevertheless, this time the diplomat’s reports to his chief must have been more pessimistic than the previous ones. Seven weeks before the deadline for holding elections, Albania is moving away from an objective seen as essential to overcoming the arms crisis. Berisha and the DP seem to have settled on a political course of sabotaging the talks and finding a satisfactory compromise. The rejection of Fino’s proposals at the table with the parties—proposals that offered a way to resolve the issues holding Albanian politics hostage: the committees, the electoral law and the election date—shows that the DP has forgotten the words reconciliation and agreement. In this way, it is finding a means of gaining at least a little time and avoiding, by every possible means, an electoral bluff at the polls. The situation Vranicki is encountering is far from happy. Fino and his cabinet are bearing pressure they do not deserve. First, the debate over the electoral law, on whose draft the prime minister has said he will stake his confidence, is in fact a debate among the parties at the round table that is failing because of the DP’s unjustified stubbornness. The DP appears to support a voting system that harms it, solely to oppose the other political forces. On the other hand, Fino has to pay for the moderate words he has directed at the committees. But that is all, because although he pledged to speak with all parties when he won the confidence vote, the prime minister has met only once with representatives of the Vlora Committee, and that is far too little to accuse him. Third and finally, the Government of National Reconciliation, whose mandate was supposed to end on 29 June, now faces statements by Democratic leaders casting doubt on a date firmly established in the 9 March agreement. Under these circumstances, Franc Vranicki, who has shown the necessary willingness to make the most of every situation into which he has been placed by the president’s unbridled imagination and the surprises of a country with neither civil war nor a state, will have to maneuver quickly to find common ground between the aggressive positions of the government and the opposition. First, he will have to obtain a commitment from President Berisha to respect the election date. (Continued on page 4)

A group of refugees who returned from Italy three days ago met yesterday with Prime Minister Fino, Minister Bulul Çelo and the Italian ambassador in Tirana, Paolo Foresti. The male refugees, who went to Italy from Shëngjin on the ship “Irini”, were sent back by the Italian authorities, separated from the women and children who are still in Bari. Bashkim Fino told the refugees that the Government of National Reconciliation would do everything it could to resolve this issue in the Albanians’ favor. He expressed his cabinet’s commitment to finding an acceptable formula with the Italian side. Ambassador Foresti, meanwhile, stated that “an illegal phenomenon cannot be legalized.” Nevertheless, he undertook to make efforts on this matter so that a solution could be found for the women and children left in Italy.

Sereqi: “Not coexistence—we should become brothers” Page 4

Vranicki arrives at Rogner with the election date in his suitcase Photo G.Shkullaku Vranicki arrives at Rogner with the election date in his suitcase. Photo G.Shkullaku