Page 3 Driza: Meksi stole the “Populli” money; I have documents. Zani i Vlorës: A. Shehu and B. Çela gave me USD 1.5 million The EC demands an agreement by Wednesday or it will suspend aid. Vranicki warns again. Last night, Fino’s roundtable again ended without consensus

Sali Berisha chose the small town of Laç to officially announce the start of the campaign on behalf of his party. Without putting much makeup on it, as always, his appearance on a public platform under the blue emblem of the DP showed that he had travelled for an hour from Tirana with a single aim: to tell his political opponents, a full eight parties from across the political spectrum, that the game of preparing for the elections was over and that the campaign signal had now been given. The campaign now beginning is undoubtedly expected to be marked by the enigmatic nature of Albanian pluralism. Five days after its start, according to the legal timetable, two-thirds of the political forces continue to declare that they are boycotting the elections. Making correction of the electoral law drafted by the DP a condition, eight political parties are imposing the broadest blockade on the president’s party. The opposition’s stance, which includes representatives of the entire political spectrum from left to right, has created a paradoxical situation on the political scene. While Berisha and Shehu declare that they do not care about the opposition’s position, they fail to see that during the campaign they will face those who are currently their direct political allies. If the eight parties do not change their position on the elections, it would mean that in the campaign DP candidates would compete against the Democrats, the Legalists and Laco’s party. It was precisely with these political forces that Berisha signed a political alliance on 16 May, which now even has a name: Union for Democracy. This tactical mistake by the president, who created a forum of parties solely to justify bringing the electoral law back to parliament, leaves him and his party exposed in the face of a united opposition. Allies and opponents are only one aspect of the difficult position in which the DP now finds itself. A high wall of obstacles now stands before it and the president, any one of which could seriously complicate the situation. By entering the elections alone, the DP knows full well that it would find it difficult to make inroads in the South. The president’s campaign, which is being conducted mainly in Central and Northern Albania, shows that he has almost no chance of crossing the Shkumbin River. If the DP and its allied parties were to plan to enter the elections on their own, it can be assumed that the situation in the southern areas would not calm down; quite the contrary. On the other hand, the international pressure on the Albanian president, which began on a massive and forceful scale, is a decisive factor in the course of a campaign crippled by the opposition’s withdrawal. Sources from the minority camp report that Vranicki had managed to create a very realistic picture of the “uncles”, even though he did not point the finger at them. If until now his and the West’s position has been limited to calls for dialogue and compromise, very soon they could move from words to action. The 12 million dollars that the US allocated for the campaign could be blocked, just as American aid was blocked over the past six months. And for a country like Albania, with no economy, this is vital. But Berisha also understands what pain means. These elections cannot be like those in May, when the opposition was violently excluded from the final result. The West—that is, those who provide the money, exert influence and send mediators to reconcile us—cannot accept a campaign dominated by the colour blue. After what Albania has done, nobody needs a campaign caricature anymore, but rather a campaign as fair as possible. Otherwise, we will offer a worse example than today’s Congo. Democratic Zaire proved it.

The “Demokracia” printing house, co-owned by seven pro-presidential newspapers, notified all newspapers printed at the facility that printing prices would rise by 20% starting today. According to the printing house’s managers, this immediate price increase is due to the rise in the value of the dollar on the Albanian market. The immediate 20% increase puts all newspapers at risk, especially independent ones; small newspapers in particular risk going bankrupt. Meanwhile, as the cost of publishing newspapers continues to soar, President of the Republic Sali Berisha and the Prime Minister of the Government of National Reconciliation, Bashkim Fino, continue to remain silent in the face of the bankruptcy of independent newspapers and are not keeping the promises they made to newspaper managers to reduce certain taxes and customs duties.

Bullfight in France Photo REUTER Bullfight in France — Photo REUTER