Criminal act by PS deputy Gafurr Mazreku. Shoots fellow MP Azem Hajdari with a pistol. Parliament is in shock; the assailant has no immunity and is in handcuffs.

These bullets in the Democratic MP’s body; he is out of danger. Mejdani, Nano and the USA condemn the act; Berisha gathers the PD in the square. The injured man heads for Italy. Mazreku – Hajdari, 24 hours before the assassination attempt Parliament, 17 September 1997. One day before the incident, the two MPs posed together. Photo AGIM RAMA Parliament, 17 September 1997. One day before the incident, the two MPs posed together. Photo AGIM RAMA

The assassination attempt against Azem Hajdari, the symbolic figure of December 1990 and the PD’s most active politician, perhaps even more charismatic than Berisha himself, was the most valuable gift for the latter at this difficult time, when, under the weight of responsibility for the catastrophe the country had experienced, he was unable to find the means and a way to create serious problems for his opponents. In such a position, Berisha would have been willing to give anything for someone from his party to become the victim of actions by a representative of the party in power. Thus, without much ado, Berisha accused President Mejdani, Albania’s criminal prime minister, Dokle, Gjinushi and their “gangs.” But Berisha’s attempt to exploit Hajdari is unlikely to succeed. What considerably reduces the chances of achieving this is Berisha’s previous record: he has tried to politicize even events that had no connection with politics. Secondly, given that most Albanians voted against Berisha only recently, they are unlikely to respond positively to his calls to be saved from “the hand of communist crime seeking to suffocate the democratic opposition.” In fact, however, the current government, which is engaged in a tooth-and-nail struggle against crime in an effort to restore calm, has no interest in any attack on the opposition. Indeed, the socialist deputy’s criminal act also compromises the government’s campaign to collect weapons. Anyone can now rightly say: “The government should disarm its own people first, then collect other people’s weapons.” Of course, Nano, Gjinushi and others had anticipated Berisha’s tendency to ensure that the “Hajdari” opportunity did not slip from his grasp. This also explains the haste to strip the man of his mandate immediately—the man who, under the weight of masochistic customs, turned away from politics and became an ordinary criminal. The prime minister himself, Nano, and later President Mejdani did not hesitate to describe Mazreku as “an ordinary criminal” and his act as “a disgraceful act,” an extreme expression of intolerance, “primitive revenge.” But despite the condemnation of the socialist deputy’s act, this does not absolve the PS of responsibility for offering its electorate an individual steeped in medieval customs and ignorance, who was, moreover, also the head of the PS in his region. In every respect, statements are not enough. In a case like this, the commander of the Guard, the speaker of Parliament and the chair of the PS parliamentary group should resign. Otherwise, their pronouncements about democracy would sound like empty words. Only then would international opinion also be convinced that the attempt on Hajdari’s life was not politically motivated. Furthermore, the events of recent days in Parliament, which culminated in the assassination attempt against the leader of the December movement, showed that politics cannot be the property of just anyone. On the other hand, those who hold the strings of Albanian politics should have understood that such a conflict is entirely deliberate. The fact is that the violent incident resulted from an escalation of violence that began with the chairman and ended in the parliamentary chamber.

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