After a phone call to the editorial office An angry voice calls the newsroom around 10:30 and asks to know the reason why payment for former political prisoners has not begun. “Not because we need it more than others, but a promise given must be kept. Measures have been taken, everything has been done,” says the anonymous caller, “yet no one is showing up at the counters to collect the first installment.” To clarify this issue, we called the Savings Bank branch in Tirana, where we learned that payment begins at 3 p.m. today. This is because the documentation and the list of former political prisoners arrived there only in the early hours of yesterday. An employee of this branch explained to us that “the daily amount available for payment is limited. We will pay 130 pensioners each day so that queues do not form. A special payment schedule will be set only for pensioners. At 2:30 p.m. a token will be distributed. If more than 130 pensioners show up, their payment will be postponed to the following days.” As for the question from the person who called the newsroom, whether the right to receive the first installment remains with someone who does not appear at the counter on the scheduled day, the Savings Bank branch replied that “all funds are available to these people. Measures have been taken so that no one else can touch these pensions. Everyone withdraws the first installment according to the scheduled day. If the gentleman who called the newsroom has the documents with him, it is better that he come to the counter with the list in hand.” We also learn that the payment of the other installments will continue uninterruptedly.

The People's Assembly of the Republic of Albania closed yesterday its regular session. In yesterday's session the deputies approved amendments to law no. 7561, dated 29.4.1992, “On some amendments and additions to the Code of Criminal Procedure”, the draft law “On some amendments to law no. 7692, dated 31.3.1993, ‘On a provision in law no. 7491 dated 29.4.1991, ‘On the main constitutional provisions’”, as well as amendments and additions to the Penal Code. In yesterday's session, PDSH deputy Edmond Hafizi proposed that the draft “On amendments to law 7692” be removed from the agenda, claiming that a constitutional article was being changed. The chairman of the legal commission, Avni Spahiu, replied that “all constitutional changes have been made in a measured way and motivated by real need; the aim is for us to have a constitution with better content.” Hafizi's remarks were also challenged by other opposition deputies, such as Aleko Minga, Vasil Bici and Fatos Nano. Deputy Prec Zogaj declared that “for us, not premises but facts matter. PDSH has brought approximately 70 draft laws to the Assembly. When a new article is submitted with 6 votes fewer than the quota needed to make constitutional changes, 140 and 5, and when later you bring it with 7 votes more, the problem is not in the votes but in the quality of the argument.” Prime Minister Aleksander Meksi, defending the draft law “On amendments to law no. 7692”, stated that “in the conditions in which we are moving with financial circulars, external credits, and a series of investments, certain adjustments in the law are necessary. To say that we are violating the main constitutional provisions is not true. All measures have been taken within the framework of democratization.” He further replied to deputy Edmond Hafizi, saying that “if this law were unconstitutional, the constitutional court would not have allowed it.” After discussing the draft laws in principle, the Assembly approved them one by one in their entirety.

- At 16:00, Spencer Schmit enters Kongresvecio, Tirana, for the first time. This afternoon, in the afternoon responsible for PDSH in the field of foreign relations, Mrs. Eralda Cani, a delegation of the Italian party “Forza Italia” led by Mr. Spencer Schmit arrives in Tirana. Along with this delegation, Dr. Assia Andoulin, president of the Puglia regional committee of “Forza Italia”, and Mr. Massiliano Mazelli, pastor and deputy secretary of this committee, also arrive in our country. Also visiting Tirana are Mr. Piero Corrada, honorary chairman of “Forza Italia” in the province of Brindisi, and Mr. Umberto Colomba, head of the party office in the city of San Vito dei Normanni. Also part of the delegation is Mr. Guiseppe Romanelli from a “Forza Italia” center in the city of Fasano. The “Forza Italia” delegation, accompanied by Mrs. Eralda Cani, will stay at the “Dajti” hotel. At 16:00 at the Palace of Congresses, Mr. Spencer Schmit, accompanied by his delegation, will meet part of the people of Tirana and afterward will hold a rally. Also today at 19:00 at Hotel “Tirana”, PDSH will host a dinner in honor of the delegation. On Saturday at 11:00 at Hotel “Dajti”, Mr. Spencer Schmit and Mr. Eduard Selami will give a press conference. On Saturday at 18:30 in the theater hall “Migjeni”, in Shkoder, a meeting with citizens will be organized. At 21:00 PDSH will host a dinner for the delegation at the hotel “Rozafa” in Shkoder. On Sunday at 10:00 at hotel “Apollonia” in Fier there will be a meeting with the citizens of this city, and then at 13:00 at hotel “Vlora” there will be a meeting with the citizens of Vlora. (Continues on page 2)

“WHAT IS THE DEAL FOR KALONJA, MBREN DISSEN OR 3 TONS?”[?]

EPILOGUE — Do we stop by solving the Tirana branch of the Socialist Party and its inspirers from the status?[?]. It is not the time to dwell too much on the style of public bargaining and on the labels that were given in the last parliamentary session for problems that are now being transferred to the offices of the administration. For more than a month the opposition has lost any sense of orientation and action, behaving in the centers of attention as an extremely weakened political force. Such behavior makes one think both of an extreme deformation of the nature of the opposition role, and of a decline in other factors that can produce public aggressiveness in politics, which can be placed in the column of the hypothesis of an opposition crisis. At least this time, the origin of the aggravated situation has been the attempt to regain, before the eyes of the public, a balance that had been definitively lost since the political defeat of the elections of 22 March 1992. In trying to resolve the state of internal alarm, the socialists are straining to adjust the longevity of their chairman, who does not give an inch. Specifically, on the eve of the previous session, for the second time in parliament movements, they publicly served up material on new appointments of socialists to parliamentary commissions. Compared with the list of names approved in the socialist parliamentary group, there were apparently also changes made after Mr. S.'s threat to leave the commissions. Thus the activity of the PS parliamentary group was reduced to a completely childish crossroads. In this way, the essential issue of the strain, publicly staged in the form of a propagandistic storm with a progressive name, clearly took on the shape of an ordinary farce. By all indications, the people most involved in this operation were figures who in the eyes of public opinion appear more as instruments for implementing personal schemes than as protagonists of an opposition based on political foundations. For this reason, the censorship and increased confusion that fell over so many things, from the composition of the new commissions to the granting of the temporary chair for the parliamentary budget debate, failed to hide the true center of the opposition crisis: the lack of authority of its leader. (Continues on page 2)

“Illegal!” with the new “PADI-ll” The Spanish elite trains in luxury hotels in Switzerland, while Spain is languishing under the weight of the latest crisis of 800,000 unemployed; in short, the “old boy” is incapable of either repairing or destroying itself. For a country traditionally of the right and the left, PDS and PPD, this ridiculous parliamentarism, where there are no winners or losers, where there is no governing alternative, may soon bring about the end of European democracy. This is the comment of a right-wing Spanish newspaper. In calm and dignified language, Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzales replied to opposition leader Hoze-Maria Aznar over the accusation the latter made against him of secret meetings with a drug trafficker. Under the prime minister's leadership, a private bank with many branches was struck by the court, causing an immediate fall in the share price. Trading in them was suspended, along with the submission of balance sheets and the distribution of dividends. The bank in question is the well-known “Banesto”, whose activity was linked to a large number of economic entities, media outlets, services, etc. What is happening in Spain we do not view with concern, just as we do not worry and do not ask ourselves how much our grand economic declarations match the balance sheets. Likewise, no one remembers to ask whether the Albanian bank has not only monthly balance sheets but also annual ones certified by independent auditors. This is being done in crisis-ridden Spain, but not only that. Despite political turmoil and government scandals, Spain, modernized over the last 10 years thanks to the beginning of a genuine de-communization, is still far ahead of us. It continues to have infrastructure, information and communications engineering, hospitals and schools many times better than ours. In this sense we follow with curiosity, beyond the personal conflict between Gonzales and Aznar, and hope that one day a recipe from the Spanish government will not come our way for an “Albanian-style” solution to the Albanian crisis. If we ever have the chance to meet Aznar one day, we would tell him that the Albanian opposition, being younger in age, should long ago have taken the path of the center, leaving little hope that the left-wing pillars could be reformed. Hoping that he will not be too late in entering the prime minister's office. Today, everything is done for electoral gain. (Continues on page 2)

“Make way! Why do you have it? PADI-I!” In continuation of the “lawsuit” issue, the court day is legalized as a counter-response to the official statement of the deputy chairman of the opposition parliamentary group (PS), Ylli Bufi, dated 29 November 1994. In a statement by this man, who reminds us not without reason of the famous series with the “lawyer” Matlock, it is said that “the pressure on being the opposition chairman consists in issuing the certificate of ownership over the whole political cinema, while the positions do not prevent the opposition chairman from currently being the owner of the ‘owner of the party’, without also securing the ‘status’?”[?] If such slander suits Mr. Ylli Bufi, and yet it cannot be answered except with irony, this is because the attack is as crude as his arguments. Treating the matter on this level, the public clearly understands that the truth is far from the fantasies invented by the opposition to justify its own internal mess. All the more so when everything is tied to the battle to preserve the chair of No. 1 of the Socialist Party. (Continues on page 2)

The deputy foreign minister and vice-chairman of the PDSH parliamentary committee on foreign relations, Mr. Preç Zogaj, received yesterday at the PDSH headquarters the delegation of the Italian Republican Right Party, led by the secretary for foreign relations, Dr. Giorgio Rizzo. Mr. Preç Zogaj informed the delegation about the political situation in Albania. He stated that PDSH looks upon the politics of the European center-right with respect, and has closely followed the results of the latest elections and the program of the Italian government, valuing it as a positive development for democracy and bilateral relations. The meeting discussed possibilities for further development of contacts and cooperation between the two parties. The Italian delegation expressed interest in the democratic processes in Albania and in the progress of the reforms. (Continues on page 2)

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