Transport Minister Ingrid Shuli resigns. Skënder Gjinushi argues heatedly with the head of government and prepares to leave the coalition President Meidani, who remains a friend of Gjinushi, is expected to resolve yesterday’s crisis within the governing majority. Meta appoints his legal adviser, Sokol Nako, as minister in place of Shuli page 2

By ALFRED PEZA The more ground Meta gains in the socialist sphere, the more Berisha wins over the Albanian electorate. It all began in January of this year. That was when Meta was consolidating his position as the only current alternative to govern the PS, while Nano was beginning to run out of campaign fuel in the race for party chairman. And, lacking the political will to untangle the unmanageable threads of the PS, Nano seems to have returned to the method that has kept him at the head of the Socialists for 9 years: serving them the bogeyman Berisha. This is a familiar game between the leaders of the two poles of Albanian politics. Its miniature resembles the working principle of an hourglass. The most primitive of clocks, it is considered the most accurate timepiece yet devised by the human mind. In that glass vessel, time is measured by the movement of grains of sand from one chamber to the other. The political relationship between Nano and Berisha has unfolded according to this logic ever since their meeting in Trieste. The PS chairman has been accused by his own people of leaving Berisha a clear field in the elections of 22 March ’92, resulting in the PD winning more than 2/3 of the votes. The same was true when the Socialists won the local elections in July of that year. Then came Nano’s imprisonment, which, as Director Agolli claimed, “Berisha turned from a man into a myth.” Berisha’s defeat in the referendum on the Constitution was not only not exploited by the PS, but also prompted the PD to prepare for 26 May 1996. And, by inertia, for 20 October’s local elections that year as well. This result still compels Fatos Nano, after 3 years in power, to declare that the PS is in opposition. None of those who closely followed March ’97 could have predicted then that Berisha would set foot not only in Flag Square, but also in “Skënderbej” Square. After sending his family to Italy, on the day Nano left his prison cell, a helicopter was waiting with its engines running for its passenger, Berisha. But that day the PS agreed to enter the Government of National Reconciliation. A government with the PS, but with a PD president and parliamentary majority, during which 2000 Albanians were killed. And since then, only 3 years have passed, and Berisha has gone from accused to accuser. In return, he held the PD congress a week before the PS congress, giving Nano the opportunity to defeat Majko by 30 votes. After that, since January of this year, the hourglass has turned in Berisha’s direction. As the century approaches, he holds rallies, and ever more voters are flocking to them. The opposition leader has begun to dictate Albanian politics once again. He is playing against an opponent who has long retreated into a defensive position. And as in a football game, in politics too, whoever fails to score will pay the price. But Nano says he feels very calm. Perhaps he is the only one in the governing majority who has nothing to lose if the PS and Berisha come to power. Because after that, he is certain to be able to restart the PS. In all of this, he is forgetting a saying of Napoleon’s: “A banished dynasty, when it returns, never forgives again.” Above all, Nano himself.

Tonight Grabocka crowns “Miss Albania 2000”

Witness in the Vlora killing page 6

Report arrives from London page 5

Ten thousand users page 13