The DP assembly is boiling over with turmoil. Brojka: I’m outside the clans; I’ll deal with the Municipality. Pollo: The troika was brought down by a secret ballot Page 7

BY ALFRED PEZA When the MPs in Parliament yesterday were not arguing over the vote on the next law, but over how to get their 12 cars, impounded by the police the previous night, released, no Albanian knew that their votes were being sought in order to break the law. Ironically, the list of protesters with immunity is said to have included a former Minister of Justice. But what had happened a few hours earlier in Tirana, that the government officials, those in power and the MPs had spent the previous night sleeping and dreaming? Late in the day before, and throughout the night, dozens of police checkpoints at intersections and on the busiest streets of the capital had stopped all cars without license plates, with foreign plates, or without proper documents. This may seem like a normal action for a police force, but not for a law-enforcement institution in a country like Albania. What had disturbed the sleep of the state pyramid was the news, passed by mobile phones during the night and unheard of until then, that the blue uniforms had dared to stop cars with the green plates of ministers, former ministers and the Governor of the Bank, not to mention the yellow plates, including those of 12 MPs from all parties and the leaders of the SP and DP. The police officers seemed very determined, and not at all hesitant to escort the cars into police station yards. The people in blue uniforms, undoubtedly the most disregarded people in this country, which had been without a state for months and whose officials had trampled on them in recent years, said yesterday that for the first time they truly felt like police officers. Following the neutralization of several criminal gangs across the country and efforts to get all district police stations functioning again, the step taken a few hours earlier appears to be the most significant one taken so far by the law-enforcement structures. The law-enforcement officers may have been recalling the past five years, when every senior or ordinary official, including people they knew, generally failed to respect even the most basic rules of road traffic. They must also have remembered the days when, behind darkened or curtained windows, the privileges that allowed cars to ignore traffic lights and road rules began to be displayed openly. It is hard to believe that in the history of any other state, the breaking of that state’s own laws has been institutionalized in this way. Yesterday, the first signal that the state was rising again had indeed been given: none of the stopped cars, despite the endless interventions by senior officials, was allowed to be released on the basis of improper documents. This also angered those with immunity, to such an extent that matters escalated into a confrontation in the corridors of Parliament between MPs and the State Secretary for Internal Affairs, Ndre Legisi. “If you want to see it, you should be the first to obey its laws,” the well-known Socialist politician said. If he—and then the entire hierarchy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the other state structures—will in practice uphold their implementation, it seems that the rule of law has begun knocking in Albania too.

The house where the PKSH was founded on 8 November 1941

After Parliament approved the list of the 11 new members of the RTVSH Governing Council two days ago, its new chairperson will be elected today. At 11:00, in the premises of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly, the Mass Media Commission and the 21 members of the Governing Council will vote on the candidates. The considerable interest shown by local and foreign newspapers in this occasion is expected to be matched by the meeting being held with open doors.

Tirana: 170 official cars at the police station Page 2

Brojka: The 16 rockets of the South return to base Page 11