Last night, the prime minister ordered the minister of Finance and the minister of Defense to shoot at smuggling boats that evade police and customs checks .

By ENTON ABILEKAJ The priest without a cassock was just a scenario that everyone already knew, but they were all waiting curiously for the performance. And they were not disappointed. It was a performance at the very limits of emotion, which fed the political spectacle and will continue to do so for several days or weeks. It was a typical development in Albanian politics, where since the beginning of pluralism, normal events have been entirely sporadic and accidental, while abnormal events have been widespread and predictable. The coalition as a whole had long since lost its reason for functioning, since it has never worked for the benefit of governance (the purpose for which it said it was created). The Alliance for the State has offered only a partitioning of governance and unchecked fiefdom owners, assigned on the basis of artificial electoral calculations, who since 1997 have done no more than any other minister could have done in their place. The Social Democratic Party has taken on three very important roles: leading Parliament, leading Diplomacy, and Transport, in which the Socialist Party itself is now observing with astonishment that its strongest ally has handled them with great partisanship and little responsibility. At the head of Parliament, Gjinushi has continually created conflicts, or been at the center of them, that have undermined democratic norms. At the head of Diplomacy, Milo has pursued a rigorously partisan policy even on regional issues, and has recently even opposed Prime Minister Meta. At the head of the Ministry of Transport, Ingrid Shuli has been called, even by the PS itself, the coalition’s most compromised and incapable minister, bearing the heavy responsibility for the failure of every section, and even every isolated point, of Corridor 8 to function. The Democratic Alliance Party has become fragmented, trying on different faces so as not to leave the government, and the only result is that it has contributed nothing. The other parties each have a small “plot of land” that they lovingly cherish, fearing it could be snatched from them at any moment, without considering what they contribute. This is the situation in the governing coalition, where nothing better can be said about the Socialist ministers. The whole point of the coalition lies in its unlawful economic interests, where everyone remembers they are allies and close ranks. That is precisely why the Alliance is only now managing to leave; above all, so as not to expose the “Illegal Paradise,” the PAD’s departure is taking place within the old framework of Albanian politics. Those in power want to say they are splitting up over a dispute about representation. Everything else is the consequence of the Priest’s missing cassock.

Page 11 Police sound the alarm: Foreign banks are also falling victim They withdraw millions using forged documents An entire network of bank robbers is being pursued by the police. They have nothing in common with the masked protagonists of Western films; they are document forgers who also work with bankers to take millions of lekë from banks operating in Tirana. Albanian and foreign banks have fallen victim; some realized it only after being robbed repeatedly, while others were notified by the police yesterday. None of the people who have stolen from notaries’ and bankers’ offices has yet been caught, but by checking the banks’ documents, the perpetrators are expected to be identified very soon.