Majko at SHIK: “Find the perpetrators, or all of you leave” Pages 2–3

BY ARBAN HASANI The reshuffle between Nano and Majko in the PS–government segment, although accepted by all political actors, is showing that the debate within the Albanian majority is not over. As soon as the new government received an absolute vote of confidence in parliament, the battle left unfinished between the factions is ready to begin at the Socialists’ headquarters. The difference is that this new confrontation is now taking place on equal terms, and none of the prominent factions has the government behind it. The process of debate within the Socialist Party is not merely an ideological issue, nor is it a debate whose starting point is the programmatic content of the classical left. More than that, what is expected to happen in Albania’s largest party concerns the political climate, which will be further intensified. With the referendum on the constitution ahead of them, the Socialists will try to minimize as much as possible, in their campaign, the shortcomings of the one-year government. But the constitutional referendum will also be Nano’s decisive test for establishing his ultimate authority within the party and creating the necessary space for the new government to continue those parts of his programme that have not been carried out. Above all, the anti-Nano faction, which for the most part has not moved from the party into the state administration, is ready to assert itself. The most opportune occasion is the vote to be held for the posts of PS secretaries, positions left vacant when the new government was formed. The balance of votes in the KPD will be fully revealed in these elections, which are not merely a matter for the Socialists. At a time when the government has mainly a right-wing economic programme, when reforms in public order are under the influence of international organizations, and when an opening in foreign policy is being attempted, the hypothetical dominance of a faction opposed to Nano would be dangerous for all Albanian citizens. The theory of opposition that the party claims it will offer the government risks turning into a barrage of attacks that would not only lower the cabinet’s credibility, but also exacerbate the country’s social problems. The calm that settled over the pink camp during the last two weeks seems now to be coming to an end. This is not only because general attention has been focused on the summer season, but also because Nano’s cult within the party has hardly changed anything. Apart from the reshuffle at the helm of the State, the PS still has to complete the debate it began two years ago, amid Nano’s transformative emotion. That polemic, throughout its course, has generally produced no loser.

“Majko’s coffee” and the coffee of former Socialist government officials The former prime ministers of Italy and Albania, Romano Prodi and Fatos Nano Photo: GENT SHKULLAKU Yesterday, a daily newspaper ran a major headline about a “fact”—the disruption of certain operations involving smuggled coffee—and the subtext was that this was being done to bring down the new prime minister, Majko. Even if the report were true, the prime minister has not yet dismissed the secretaries and drivers, let alone become involved in smuggling or ordered such a thing. According to the account given by the Director General of Customs in Albania, Albana Velezhnja, everything was in accordance with the law, but the new Order has also become entangled over the smuggled goods that the van “Ojal” [?] had again been suspected of carrying and seized. After this news, and despite everything being in accordance with the rules, someone among the former Socialist government officials had called the newspaper’s editorial office to inform the “big shot” that Majko, too, was getting mixed up in smuggling. This is a malicious wish directed at an idealistic prime minister like Majko, who can be accused of many things, but not of abusing his office. It is possible that traps will be laid for the new prime minister to make him appear smeared with the mud of smuggling, so that people can say, “Look, Majko has started too,” or “They’re making Majko look guilty too, but it’s the press that brings these things to light.” The early appeal of the courageous young prime minister cannot be blackened in this way by the PS, since the advisers of the younger generation and the police officers who [?] ended up in total disillusionment for the generation that is preparing to take politics into its own hands and work with dedication for this country, which is a country lost with difficulty? concern [?], Majko yesterday acknowledged the first attack aimed at smearing him with the black mud of some former Socialist government officials, who are easily swayed by dollars and smuggling gangs. Tomorrow, the prime minister must denounce it, and the truth will otherwise end in total disillusionment for the generation preparing to take politics into its own hands and work with dedication for this country, which is a country lost with difficulty? In these circumstances, his claim that he will govern until 2001 is not being undermined by? “The Dinar governments” [?], as presented, has as its article divi [?] The former prime ministers of Italy and Albania, Romano Prodi and Fatos Nano — Photo: GENT SHKULLAKU