A delegation of the European Democratic Union, led by Mr. Geoffrey Pattie, chairman of EDU’s First Commission, and Mr. Andreas Khol, executive secretary of EDU, arrived in Albania yesterday. At Rinas airport, the delegation was received by the chairman of PDSH, Mr. Eduard’ Selami, and the secretary-general of PDSH, Mr. Tomorr Dosti. On Friday, the delegation visited PDSH headquarters, where it was received by senior PDSH officials. In his remarks, Mr. Selami thanked them for the visit by such a high-level EDU delegation. He expressed the PD’s esteem and appreciation for the valuable assistance this organization has given the PD since its beginnings—assistance of particular importance to Albania as well. I hope that your visit and your discussions and contacts with the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament and representatives of Albania’s political parties will create a realistic picture of the democratic processes in Albania and contribute to our requests to join European structures, namely the Council of Europe, the European Parliament and NATO. Mr. Selami then briefed senior EDU officials on the political and economic situation in the country. He pointed out that PDSH is one of the most successful parties of the post-communist period in Eastern Europe. And it is precisely the trust and support of the Albanian people (Continued on page 4) It was transformed into an organized political force that reaches and democratic space of the Western kind. This constitutes one of the Democratic Party’s strongest points of success. Today, with 120,000 members, the Democratic Party has branches throughout Albania, and naturally its members and supporters are its greatest support. In the last electoral campaign, the Democratic Party won around 65 percent of the vote. This was the greatest political victory democracy has achieved in these two years.

From the speech by the chairman of the PD, Mr. EDUARD SELAMI, at the press conference held last night at the Palace of Congresses. First of all, I would like to thank the EDU delegation (European Democratic Union), its representatives and the head of the delegation, Mr. Geoffrey Pattie, for the visit and, at the same time, for the support they have given the Democratic Party and democracy in Albania during these two years of contacts and relations with them. The Democratic Party was the first opposition force to stand up to the communist dictatorship in Albania. From a nationwide anti-communist movement, it quickly became a serious political party that took on the task of overthrowing the communist system and building democracy in Albania. In this relatively peaceful democratic revolution, the Democratic Party, as a center-right force, has clearly adopted a firm, openly anti-communist stance and the view that in Albania, as everywhere, communism is opposed to democracy and you cannot be a democrat without being anti-communist. The Democratic Party soon evolved from a movement into an organized political force in every city and village in Albania, with an internal organization and democratic space of a Western type. This is one of the Democratic Party’s greatest strengths and a key to its success. Today, the Democratic Party has 120,000 members, sections everywhere, and its supporters are its greatest source of support. The PS is led by people from the Hoxha-Alia clan, who are programmed according to this conservative clan. This clan has never distanced itself from the dictator Enver Hoxha. The Democratic Party has an unquestionable reputation in the country and powerful international support. We support a peaceful foreign policy. But we support the view that only military intervention can stop the Serbian aggressor. … and in the end it seems to say…[?] In the campaign …[?] … and one of the largest in the East. This marked the beginning of building the rule of law. The Democratic Party is active in Parliament, in the Government and in local government. Its aim is to build the rule of law and democracy, overcome the past and integrate Albania with Europe. In this context, our relations with EDU are important. In this context, our relations with EDU are important. After more than a year in government, positive changes are evident: in the consolidation of freedoms and human rights, the creation of the rule of law, the privatization of the economy, public order and Albania’s integration into Europe. In a few words, the policy pursued by the Democratic Party has been: break with the past, move closer to Europe. The political situation in the Balkans is highly tense. Serbian aggression, despite the signing of peace plans from time to time, has done nothing but serve its purpose of buying time for its plans to create a Greater Serbia. The decision of the so-called parliament of the Bosnian Serbs in Pale must be understood in the same way. It is truly absurd to expect reasonable decisions from a group of political criminals who, with their policy of war, are leading the Balkans toward an unimaginable catastrophe. The policy of violence that only military intervention can stop the Serbian aggressor. the decision of the self-proclaimed parliament of the Bosnian Serbs in Pale. group of criminal politicians who, through unimaginable catastrophe. The politics of violence (Continued on page 4)

. For me, leaving the PS is a purification of the soul, a strengthening of reason and a contribution to the flourishing of democratic life. As an intellectual unsated by freedom in the broadest sense of the word, I cannot accept the withering of my thought or exclusion from democratic processes. The participation of intellectuals in democratic processes is a guarantee that these processes will move in the right direction at this moment of transition. I cannot remain in a party that accepts democracy in theory and opposes it in practice. I cannot remain in a conservative party. I cannot remain in a party that has gathered around itself laborists, crypto-communists, and people who are economically and morally corrupt. I cannot remain in a party that makes every sacrifice to create unrest at the people’s expense in order to advance personal interests. You cannot believe the propaganda of the PP and its socialist façade about the European path of democratic socialism, when all their lives they have been against it. I cannot remain in a party with leaders who are economically corrupt, who have stolen themselves or have created real opportunities for their entourage to steal by exploiting high government offices—offices bestowed by Ramiz Alia, which must have been intended to protect his system. Otherwise, there is no way to explain how Fatos Nano was presented as chairman of the Labor Party (which was then in power) and placed directly in its chair, after first being given a false reputation and publicity, while Fatos himself hardly ever spoke at length before, like Zeus! It is clear enough now that millions of lekë or dollars went into the thief’s pocket and not into the people’s stomachs. If you have the people’s trust and squander it, even when others have put it in your hands, you must be punished for adding to the people’s suffering. Thus the PS (PP) remains a party deeply mired in a foul leadership and a decent electorate, as well as other members who do not deserve to have themselves stained by such a party. The same applies to the PS in the district. Its leadership is below the level of the average intellectual, while honest intellectuals are sidelined and ignored by them. FERRIT HYSA Member of the District Council of the PS, LIBRAZHD

-The average age of the rally-goers is over 65. -A little girl accidentally shouts: Down with Fatos Nano! WE GREW OLD WAITING FOR THE “SOCIALIST PARADISE…”

Friday afternoon. On all the roads leading to the square in front of “Dinamo” stadium, you see pensioners and those responsible who, bent over by the “happy socialist life,” are heading to the rally organized by the PS. They are the veterans who fought for a truly free democracy, but whose dream and ideals were killed by PPSH, the mother of the PS, and who were bent and turned grey before their time, working on voluntary work campaigns for the “golden spoon.” Even so, this generation of 60-to-70-year-olds has decided to applaud the socialists’ leader, dear Nano. That is their business; nostalgia for the past, the loss of privileges and their convictions all have their own value. To tell the truth, among the PS’s veteran supporters there were also 20–30 young people who call themselves Euro-socialists to appear as snobbish as possible. Let us also mention the three employees of the building, volunteers for the “golden spoon.” (Continued on page 2)

Among the people gathered on the 7th in front of the “Dinamo” stadium, Fatos Nano cried out with communist pathos: “Long live the poor wretches!” The crowd’s ovations lasted several minutes. Nano’s admirers like being called “poor wretches.” Of course, they are the biggest poor wretches, since they have found themselves in a predicament, trying to find ways to cover up the corruption and abuses during Nano’s government, to make the violent plundering of national assets permanent by law, and to restore yesterday’s communist privileges. “Your own bells don’t let you hear someone else’s,” as the saying goes. They do not bother to delve into the meaning of the expression “long live the poor wretches,” which their leader articulated with the neocommunist purity of his convictions. When Nano says “long live the poor wretches,” first and foremost he is consoling himself. At this moment, he wants the country filled with as many makeshift “poor wretches” as possible, so that he can promote populism at all costs, as the most suitable mechanical solution in the circumstances of his and his party’s spiritual and political crisis. This is because he is directly accused of theft and massive embezzlement at the expense of the people’s poverty. Surely, the expression “long live the poor wretches” will be the refrain of all Nano’s speeches during the rally campaign he is expected to organize in many districts of the country. With grotesque communist euphoria, Nano imagines that by adding (without an ordinal number) so-called “poor wretches,” he will drown out the voice of justice summoning him to the dock on corruption charges. Those gathered at his rallies, beneath the shadow of his stones, will finally understand that they are playing the role once played by Enver’s volunteer “quartju” [sic]. Nano still has time to avoid completely tarnishing his image in the eyes of his electorate by facing facts, rather than holding demagogic rallies. Democracy has not denied him this right; on the contrary, it may have encouraged him more than others. By preferring the path of populist rallies, where corruption and characters are laid bare, Nano increasingly establishes himself as a revanchist who is “afraid of the truth and prefers to worship in the temple of lies.” ARBEN ILIAZI

I do not understand why the two main newspapers, “ZP” and “Aleanca Demokratike,” are so zealously spreading shameless lies about a completely insignificant misunderstanding that arose between me and deputy Baleta during a recess in the session—I continue to respect my colleague just as I did before, and I am convinced that he thinks the same way I do. It seems immoral to me to interpret an event by distorting it and departing completely from the truth. It is a newspaper’s honor to tell the truth; otherwise, it compromises itself and the political principles it upholds. LEKA TOTO