Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana stated that he would make the maximum contribution in his new post as Secretary General of NATO. He gave no details regarding his replacement as foreign minister or whether Spain will become a full member of NATO's military structure. I am very grateful to all those who showed confidence in me regarding the leadership of NATO at a very important moment, Solana stressed at a press conference. I will devote my maximum efforts to this task. Undoubtedly, the greatest challenge is the implementation of the peace agreement in Bosnia. Solana was not certain about the date of his departure for Brussels, but noted that he wanted to take part in the EU meeting on 15-16 December, which will bring to an end the six-month Spanish presidency. It is worth noting that Solana and his Socialist Party were against Spain's entry into NATO in 1982, when they first came to power. But in 1986, during a referendum on joining the Alliance, their stance changed radically. Spain is not yet a full member of the Alliance's military structure, and Solana did not comment on the purpose of this change.

President Berisha greets the Christian Democrats' Assembly Dear leaders and representatives of the Albanian Christian Democrats! It is a special pleasure for me to greet you today, and all Albanian Christian democrats wherever they may be, on the day of this nationwide gathering of yours. Your Union Assembly is an important event for the entire nation, both for its all-Albanian character and for the contribution it will make to the consolidation of the Albanian Christian Democratic forces and the major issues it will address, the further development of democracy and its values in Albania, and the solution of the Albanian question. The Albanian Christian Democratic parties were founded on the universal principles of human and divine freedoms and rights, as well as on our valuable national heritage. These parties made an important contribution to freeing the Albanian nation from communist ideology. For the Democratic Party, these parties are its natural allies. It has regarded, and still regards, as a historical achievement its cooperation and alliance with those Albanian political forces, among them the Albanian Christian Democratic Party, in the overthrow of the communist state. Today, after so many years of the complex development of democracy in Albania, despite the contradictions and legitimate differences of views and positions, it considers as allies in the coalition those with whom it toppled the most brutal communist dictatorship in Europe in Albania, like separated brothers from the same house. By valuing their contribution as highly precious to the foundations of Albanian democracy, the Democratic Party is determined to preserve intact the readiness for alliance, cooperation, and coordination of all efforts with these forces and parties, so that the coming spring of life may be the springtime of Albanian democracy. Once again, I wish your nationwide assembly every success.

EDITORIAL For two days now, exponents of the Socialist Party have been gathered at its headquarters to devise new formulas that will continue the fight against the law on genocide vetting. Their shock this time is more severe. It is being thought that their tainted past may be transplanted into the future of democracy in Albania. But no one can eliminate the history of this party, much less believe in its complete reform. Their past remains what it is. They are proving their inability to break away from it. The danger arising from a polluted history, if it were only a past matter, would amount to no more than history. But in the case of the Socialist Party, this past is integrated into its ranks from the base all the way to the top. This is the typical case in which history demands the political present and future, turning itself into an attribute. It has eliminated the perspective of its ranks, and precisely in these last two days it has been trying to turn fiction into the entire political activity of the party. After this tested thesis, supposedly to be taken as a reference for believing in its reform, another list has now been prepared that adds to the five. Since the socialists have their scheme for carving up their party and exercise the tempering of their ranks according to the past. In this party now comes the moment of parting with the future. The Socialist Party is being sacrificed by its leaders in the name of hypocrisy and the ambition for power, in the name of keeping the armchair and the positions of the regressive, extremely left-wing forces. This parting today means coexistence with their unlawful history, while its leaders will finally detach themselves from the meaning that guided the law on genocide, taking with them all the chances that Albanian democracy has created for them to integrate into it. All the objectives of the new social movements and the framework of a political force's movement must be listed as an event that will happen. In this naturally, the Socialist Party must be tempted to destroy itself and at least behave unconventionally, even as a disorder, with the chances of being set right by the broad social movements. Or at least let it remain a sterile moment in ideas and programmes, and even more so in the face of the decisive moments of a country. The instrument of reform today in Albania appears as an agenda in relation to the stance just as much as a stance toward the past. This happens because the past is so deeply implicated in Albania's present; it is present and functioning, institutionalized in the Albanian left opposition. Taking it on would be the greatest provocation to Albania's future. Precisely from here, now in Albanian opposition politics. The Socialist Party has voted twice in favor of the past. Initiatives such as those in this period are a precedent against the capitalist system of Albania and lay the foundations for the harshest regression that could be realized in that rustic margin. The Socialist leadership is not in a position to rectify itself or naturally by moving away from politics. The labeling of the law on genocide declared by Socialist leaders so far has absolutely no remedy if it does not itself express the regression of this party. The new lists for exclusions from the party or its leadership express its complex toward the future, which now seems to be dragging behind the party's leadership line. By removing the reformist wing from its leadership, they have practically brought about the interruption of the Party's reform. If those five are to be added, and in fact this reduction in favor of the past is already under way, it means that this party has ultimately been usurped by its 50-year history. It now stands so deeply under its command that it is dictated by it. The paradise of their program as a program of the future no longer matters. Their declarations about breaking decisively with the past no longer matter. The future is no longer on their side. The lists of what this law will do to them will weaken the law and condemn the past. For some time now the opposition has been operating with accusations against the PD as if it were this party that is turning back to the past. It is not the PD that has cast its gaze there. Breaking away from the past seems to be the problem of the Democratic Party. It has no past history, and the only thing that links it to it is its interruption on March 22 and the responsibility for that interruption to be eternal. The past is a problem of the PS [it should] cleanse itself before the law could accomplish this. At their latest meeting the socialists repeated the party hierarchy scheme, but with no greeting from what had been two days earlier. Again they will be led unlawfully in the future by Nano, Ruçi, etc. Likewise, the opposition lists prepared by them contain elements of illusion about the past. This latest protest of theirs, following the existing hygiene with the law inside the party and mainly self-incrimination, is not the case that this party is tired and, from the dizzying list of names, its only allies left are the PD and PDA. Their alliance is not so much an expression of the bringing together of electoral programmes as it is a fusion of their past. They unite when the law hinders them. The implementation of the law on genocide is inevitable. This law is the word of the past. It cannot explain its violence, crime, barbarism, and prisons. And the verification of the law cannot be done by the past, nor according to its convenience.

Nano orders the leadership of the PS not to recognize the Court of Cassation The law on vetting the background of politicians removes from the Albanian political scene the elements tainted by the past, who may rise and seize control of the leadership of the Socialist Party and of some other parties of the extreme left opposition. However, individuals affected by this law have also been given the possibility to complain if they feel they have been treated unjustly, by appealing directly to the Constitutional Court, without going through the court of first instance. With this act, a higher instance of criminal and civil justice was also intended to be brought in, so that this law could be implemented as correctly and fairly as possible. For the chairman of the PS, Nano, for whom this law marks the end of his political career, has issued an order from Bejtex[?], that none of the leaders of this party affected by the law should appeal to this court, because after the departure of Brozi, according to him, it is no longer useful. With this act Nano seeks to impose non-recognition of this court and, in broader contexts, the man of orders, the man who, with his incriminated allies, ordered a vote against the law on human rights and freedoms, openly speaks against the rule of law and is not realistic about recognizing it, and tries to impose this concept on his own party as well, together with other incriminated figures who are writhing at the end of their political agony.

PS risks becoming a fossil party PS is experiencing the deepest crisis in its history. Split, conflict, disagreement, the Ruli of Berishas, the incriminated and lost, consciously wounded, seek revenge against everything and everyone. After Friday, lists are now clashing with those elements that bear no resemblance to the past, that are not incriminated by it. For Nano, Pëllumbi, Ruçi, Dokle, Brokaj, etc., the measure of loyalty to the Socialist Party is measured by the degree of incrimination with the past. So they aim to secure the party institution through incrimination. It is precisely for this reason that elements with no kind of blemish, outside the ranks of this party in the name of the ideals of democratic socialism, are now being placed on the lists that will send the five away. This is the last effort the leaders are making to keep the Socialist Party under control and to make its reform impossible, thereby endangering socialism and the future of this party, a danger that could turn it into a fossil party. E. DIBRA

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