Speech by President Sali Berisha delivered on the 5th anniversary of the founding of the DP The Democratic Party The Party of the future of Albanians It is a special honor and privilege for me to greet you from the heart and to wish tonight to the members, sympathizers, electorate, friends and well-wishers of the Democratic Party in Albania and everywhere in the world: Happy 5th anniversary of the Democratic Party, its great celebration. The Democratic Party, in five years of life in opposition and in power, by implementing its program, overthrew the fiercest communist dictatorship in Eastern Europe, avoided bloodshed and the erosion of a nation in its 47-year agony and provoked, and on 22 March 1992 achieved by free vote the true historical victory. In these short periods of time it built the institutions of the rule of law; replaced the laws of the communist system with new laws; transformed Albania into a country of private property and market economy, of rapid economic initiative, of convertible thinking and low inflation. It brought the country out of deep half-century-long isolation. Today Albania is a member of the Council of Europe. For five years in a row Albania entered the final decade of this century as the country of bunkers and clichés, the country of imposed isolation, of lost hopes and stopped time. The breath of freedom from the eastern countries tore Albania out of silence and dead time, neither as East nor as West. It was resisting remaining the Cuba of the Adriatic. And it was a black nation, it was the road to extinction, to the final alienation of citizens of millennia. But to this alternative Albania, the entire Albanian nation, would respond with a bigger “NO” than any vote. At the beginning of 1990, and even earlier, on the borders of Albania and in its cities of Shkodër, Kavajë, Tirana, Korçë, Elbasan, Fier, Lushnjë, he began the duel with the dictatorship that would culminate in the student movement of December ’90. The student youth movement of December ’90 was the most progressive movement of the fearless for democracy and progress and the most successful anti-communist student movement in Eastern Europe. In the first wave of December 1990, the students and professors of the University of Tirana raised the biblical movement of David and Goliath. Glory to the victorious students of December! They made history! Five years in the life of a party, a nation or a country are not much, but the history of Albania proves that five years in freedom and light are more than 500 years in darkness, and that in these five years in Albania hundreds and hundreds of centuries-old Albanian aspirations were realized to make Albania a city of freedom, faith and free initiative. Five years ago Albania entered the last decade of this century as the country of bunkers and gulags, the country of imposed isolation, of lost hopes and stopped time. The breath of the freedoms of the eastern countries tore Albania out of silence and dead time, neither as East nor as West. It was resisting remaining the Cuba of the Adriatic. And it was a black nation, it was the road to extinction, to the alienation of millennial citizens. But Albania, the entire Albanian nation, would answer this alternative with a “NO” greater than all votes. At the beginning of 1990, and even earlier, on the borders of Albania and in its cities of Shkodër, Kavajë, Tirana, Korçë, Elbasan, Fier, Lushnjë, he began the duel with the dictatorship that would culminate in the student movement of December ’90. On 8 December, just a few hours after the kneeling of the communist dictator, the student of the Water Supply faculty joined the workers and citizens of Tirana who founded the Democratic Party, the most powerful opposition political force in the history of Albania. The Democratic Party was founded as an imperative turning point in Albanian progressive thought, in the great ideas of Bogdani and Budi and of our Renaissance figures, which had ultimately defined Albania’s place, with Albanian international predominance over absolutism, the local monism of hundreds and thousands of Albanian intellectuals, workers and peasants who, for the free word, for the great God, for Christ the King, for the free dignity of a free Albania, were martyred while still alive, fell for immortal freedom in the old legend of human resistance against the brutal genocide of the totalitarian communist system. Among all Albanians who fought and fell for the freedom of Albania, for free speech, faith and thought, the Democratic Party, in its first program, proclaimed itself the true family of human rights and defined as its mission the overthrow of the bloody myth of communist dictatorship in Albania, the construction of the rule of law and a market economy, the integration of the country into Europe and the resolution of the national question. Precisely in the greatest sacrifice of Albanians for freedom, in the wild storm of Albanian youth, in line with the program of the Democratic Party stood The December students made history

The 5th anniversary of the founding of the DP and pluralism in Albania was celebrated With a simple ceremony and outside the official protocol, last night in the hall of the Opera and Ballet Theatre the fifth anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Party and of pluralism in Albania was celebrated. Through the greeting of the President of the Republic, Sali Berisha, the messages of progress and the triumph of democracy were conveyed. Albanians, Berisha said, are knocking on the door of the coming century with messages of the consolidation of freedom and democracy, of the rule of law and civic emancipation, with the important messages of choosing national peace and calm. Prime Minister Aleksandër Meksi underlined in his greeting the economic achievements of the DP government, guaranteeing that the country will be marked by rapid development and well-being for all. The Democratic Party is the party of Albania’s future, of a dignified place in Europe and of securing a democratic future, said Mr. Tritan Shehu, Secretary General of the DP, in his greeting. At the end, the ceremony closed with a cocktail reception attended, besides the high-ranking personalities of the party and the state, by hundreds of DP members and sympathizers, diplomats, friends and other invited guests of the DP. Correspondent of "RD"

What alternative do you, gentlemen socialists, present for the privatization of the economy at a time when you oppose the privatization boards in which you take part, boycott the round table and vote against the securities law, while in your press you criticize the privatization of strategic sectors through laws? What is your alternative for foreign investment, when in parliament you vote against the laws on the sale and purchase of land and sites, and with your signature you attack the Albanian-American Enterprise Fund, the generous German aid, the generous aid and Italian investments, British investments? What alternative do you offer for Albania’s cooperation with the USA, when your leadership despises the fact that they intend to welcome the visit of the Head of State of that great friendly country? What alternative do you offer in cooperation with Germany, when you attack and insult important figures of German politics and go on to quietly and despairingly prejudge Honecker? What alternative do you offer in cooperation with Italy, when you label the great reformers of its political life as fascists or as political merchants? What alternative do you offer for Albania’s membership in NATO, when you are the only ones who opposed the offer that the President of the Republic made to the Alliance for airport facilities? Gentlemen, allow me to ask you: do the calls for skulls to be broken, for the St. Bartholomew’s Night, for civil war during the years ’93-’95 come from the committees of the PPSH, from the caves of the cats, the dens of the tupamaros, or from the disappointments of your current leadership. Likewise I would like to ask you: What difference is there between the process that Enver Hoxha and his gang carried out against the religious clergy and those Albanian social democrats Sejtfulla Malëshova in 1945, and the process that you carried out against the group of the Malëshova independents who split from you and joined the PS in order to reform it? Why, when the penal law targets leading elements of your leadership implicated in the genocide against the Albanian people, do you strike at reformist elements in your leadership? You may say that we are responding to and interfering in internal affairs. My answer is that you are dividing not only the left, but also damaging the image of Albanian democracy. (To be continued on page 3)

Speech by the Secretary General of the PD, Tritan Shehu Albania needs a majority PD Dictatorships always have an end. No matter how powerful and unbreakable they may seem, their end undoubtedly comes. But it comes when people become conscious of their own strength, when people are no longer afraid of them. Its end, its destruction, is always inextricably linked to the birth of the new, the progressive, to the birth of that political force which, like an opening path, opens the way to democracy, and whose basis in its own philosophy is pluralism, that force which fights for the human being, for the individual as the foundation of human society. The DP, five years ago, was born precisely on these principles, precisely to cut off the road of dictatorship, precisely to open the road to the future. Although 5 years are little in the history of a people, in these years the DP entered history as that political force which for the first time laid the foundations of a democratic and progressive society, of an Albania which now enters the road of progress, which is finally moving along the road that will undoubtedly lead it to the full securing of European individuals. Although one may try to analyze the moment when the DP was created, we will find that it was among the most unexpected for the country’s destiny. A long dictatorship, which in its agony brought about total collapse, pushed a country to the brink of destruction. If we analyze the mission of the DP, it would be to relieve the country from oppression, the overall development of the European family. During this period our achievements are evident, gentlemen, our program is indisputable. However, the mission of the DP is only at its beginnings. We have only laid the foundations of the future. To reach where we aim, one must be on the long road, on the road along which modern European civilization and world democracy have passed. Time is needed and a lot of work is needed, a clear vision is needed, an alternative is needed, not only of deeds, which stands only on a strong, organized, broad PD. Let us think here, we achieved because we had a clear democratic alternative, a solid political force. If we want to achieve our objective, that of the future, we again need a strong PD. So, without the slightest hesitation, the strengthening, expansion, renewal and consolidation of this political force remains our main task, our major objective, which is inseparably linked with the fate of Albanian democracy, with growth and integration into Europe, with the pace of development. And precisely today, on this 5th anniversary, we are pleased to note that our structures are more efficient, closer to the individual. We are pleased to note that this party, as a force of hope, thanks to its program, the democratic ideals it raised, the militancy of its members and sympathizers, the abilities shown and here first of all the central figure of its creation, Sali Berisha, managed to become the main Albanian political force, the force of the majority of the population, the most organized and dynamic political force. It is precisely these qualities that were the basis of victory; it is these qualities that, if preserved and developed, guarantee the future. Thanks to this, a (To be continued on page 2)

Speech by Prime Minister Aleksandër Meksi Today we commemorate the 5th anniversary of the Democratic Party, which is also the first step in the creation of political pluralism in Albania and the beginning of a new period in the modern history of Albania, the democratic period. This day Albanians awaited for half a century, during which the overwhelming majority of them suffered and were martyred. The hopes for change that arose and multiplied after the dictator’s death were definitively killed in the long and painful year that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the killing of Ceaușescu; and the long closure convinced them that Ramiz Alia and his comrades would not budge from the given situation. In this way the memories of postwar Albania were buried; a complete end, dozens of young people thought that bright days had come and understood that the period of the embassies and mass exoduses had begun, the almost total collapse of the Albanian economy, of the state, of the institutions. It was the students who, clashing with and breaking away from the police, told the dictatorship forcefully that the dictatorship had collapsed and brought the Party of Labour to its knees, demanding political pluralism, convinced that only it could ensure the country’s salvation. We already know the history; I would emphasize here their bravery and the massive support they received from the democratic people of Tirana and not only of Tirana. With their courage and foresight the students opened the road of pluralism and democracy for Albania. It took only one day to create the first truly democratic Albanian post-communist political force. The Democratic Party, which as of today is 5 years old, represented the minimum of the students, of the residents of Tirana and of those who came, represented the minimum as well and proclaimed a minimal program that promised Albanians freedom and democracy by making Albania European. From that day the DP and Albanian democracy showed their inner strength; in a short time the Democratic Party spread and organized throughout the country, also