The American Institute of Biographies publishes its report on the four most prominent politicians in the world for the past year. German Chancellor Schröder, British Prime Minister Blair, Croatian President Stipe Mesiç and former Prime Minister Pandeli Majko Majko named by the US the world’s politician of 1999

By ALEKSANDËR ÇIPA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF KOHA TV While spending a day off at the seaside, a thoughtful old man asked me: “Is there any change in Tirana?…” Convinced that he had not made clear what he was asking, he added by way of preamble: “I want to know something new, something other than what the parties say…”. Then, elaborating on his question, he added, with several meanings: “Because, for example, here in Himarë we always have something new in the Sea, besides the land and the Sky, just like you in Tirana…”. The metaphor of the elderly Albanian by the coast, set against the familiar image of the political scene, prompts one to think a little more deeply about the evocative poverty of the political camps entering the next electoral contest. In their daily announcements, the Socialists seem to have moved away from political evocations of the past, trying to create the façade of a party matured toward modernity in its campaign form. On the other hand, at least so far, they seem to have given up evoking “their suffering under Berisha’s government”. They have also stopped frequently mentioning the 1996 elections, when, as the opposition, they had the opportunity to demonstrate electoral resistance and self-sacrifice, even to the point of struggle. Confronting them, the Democrats, who emerged from the destructive departure from government in ’97, have excluded references evoking the electoral past from their campaign vocabulary—with the exception of the neologism “kallashfushatë”, coined by their leader Berisha. Thus, both sides face the difficulty of confronting “the evocation of evil”, which they have both created and suffered. Their two strongest candidates for the country’s capital’s mayoralty—Tirana—Rama and Mustafaj, respectively, are leaning toward a campaign completely different from previous ones. In the first circle of their teams, the odds are that they will differ from previous campaigns. that they will include not militants but a number of pragmatic managers who do not bear the faces of fierce militancy. In this challenge of evocation, the Socialists themselves have accepted “Return to Identity” as their candidate’s slogan, implying an entirely new political façade. For their part, the Democrats, through their selective approach favoring intellectuals and credible names, have entered the race with candidates who can be valued even by opportunist and liberal camps. This tendency in the politics directed by the two main forces can only be called a promise to overcome the “manifested evil” through evocation, as has been the case until now. Translated according to the simple old man’s metaphorical concept, it means: in politics, always between the two-sided right-wing extremes, there is the “third space”. It is also the normal middle ground, or simply: “the third space”.

The poll by the independent Institute “Media and Law” continues Page 6