Candidates for prime minister: Arta Dade, Makbule Çeço, Emelinda Meksi, Namik Dokle and Ilir Meta The Presidency reacts after pressure from Prime Minister Majko that “If support is lost, the PS will resign as prime minister and Albania will enter new parliamentary elections.” Mejdani: There will be no new parliamentary elections, even if the current prime minister resigns

The third congress of the PS began yesterday in Tirana, and the article published first in the newspaper “Koha Jonë” clearly shows that the socialists do not want press freedom. Majko is becoming like Nano and company! We have all contributed, as independent journalists, throughout all these years of PS government, to a congress without conflicts and insults. As in every serious party congress, the socialists also changed many of their top party structures. It was likely that the opposite would happen for the leadership of the PS. But since when does the leadership of a party change before a high forum such as the KPD is elected? Apparently, serious journalists for the PS are still only those who weave praise and servility, but morals or ethical rules will never find a place in their minds. The opposite was evident yesterday in the hall. For nearly 7 consecutive years, “Koha Jonë” and its publisher Nikollë Lesi have waged a relentless battle against the privileged caste of the PS. Perhaps some MPs and militants feel the same when they see Nikollë Lesi seated in the presidium chair. And who is he? Nikollë Lesi, the man who on several occasions has called him the most corrupt politician or the biggest profiteer of yesterday. Let us make a comparison with the votes for the leadership and the chairman. Nano calmly mocked the independence of the print and electronic media, knowing exactly where the person is who holds more than half of the congress. With his tragic calm, he even forced the waiter to remove this man from the podium, the man who has served him nonstop for 10 straight years. So the PS leadership apparently has also chosen the opposition stance of “Koha Jonë”, because it does not tolerate even the smartest and most popular publisher of recent years. But who had the strength and courage to ask Prime Minister Majko how the government drafts were really being prepared in cafés and hotels, when he speaks so loudly about the “lustration” of the PS leadership elite? And who was it, despite having suffered so much from the power of the PS or the PS government, who raised their voice yesterday in defense of this political force? It was “Koha Jonë”, although not infrequently even when Prime Minister Majko himself appeared as the more aggressive side in relations with the independent Albanian press. From these behaviors at yesterday’s congress emerges a new concept of rule, which since 1997, perhaps not yet bold enough, clearly hides hostility toward all forms of published expression. It values directives of rule through parliament, through the government, through the media. This was also evident in the existence of the publisher at the head of the podium at yesterday’s congress. “Koha Jonë” sees that a generation born after the PS years rules.

Majko: If what? the prime ministership, it is better for me to be alone in diarrhea[?] By Filip Çakuli Agim Llaci

Prime Minister Majko, one of the leaders of the Socialist Party Congress, did not enter the candidate’s name, and the congress delegates, with their votes, sent him the signal that his time at the head of the government was over. On the evening of that same post-election day, unconsumed and likewise with the delegates unmatched with their favorite, since in the afternoon’s visible choices in the government team with the appearance of Makbule Çeço. Prime Minister Majko, a man who has publicly declared that he would block the post of prime minister by leaving it, remained alone, thirsty as in. It is such a case when no one entered the hall to explain figures in order to bring into consideration the fact that the PS had not taken the chair by force and [n]e. In a few directions he chose his chairman. In a few directions he gathered some of the wavering leaders to help him come out in a way he himself had chosen, without entering at such a moment into advantage. As prime minister of the government, accustomed to the logic of command, especially in conditions where all different variants of governance are circulating for the country, Majko had prepared the government structure as a leading theme. Otherwise, had the candidacies with the government team and the political position been clear. It is not clear whether such a scenario could have been put into practice, but whatever happened, Majko had made the decision that if he would not be prime minister tomorrow, he would be farther from his government. It is a declaration of the congress, as seems now crystallized with the socialist “bogeyman” reminding him of worthy names in government. The unconsumed elections that would follow, a return of the departed prime minister and the Congress declarations, which would delegitimize him. Majko himself, under the bitter taste of yesterday, such was his own conscience, not only as head of government but also as a delegate of the Congress. In the evening of that same day he went to ask why he had to do what many others considered unnecessary. After these developments and yesterday afternoon, the government of Majko’s departure from the prime ministership, the removal of the prime minister from the Socialist delegates’ candidacy, will prepare the leadership of the socialists and its socialists. It became clear that the government is no longer supported by the leader of the opposition and by those appointed for it. The challenges that the new socialist government in the country will face will increasingly resemble the resigned government. The leadership of the PSD hints that the country is in a kind of uncertainty and has doubts about it. Nevertheless, Majko’s new “dead” government undoubtedly remains among its travelers. (Continues on page 2)

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