The seven points of a so-called PS programme for the political year 1996 ultimately reflect the political erosion of this party. Dogmatism and totalitarian spirit are deeply embedded in these seven points, which, moreover, are also seven warnings to the Albanian electorate. Each of them carries a bleak party line in its lines. Right from the first point, anti-globalism has been made their watchword. What they call an effort to secure free elections is meant, instead, to prepare the ground for elements in the civic movement. When a leader of their party declared that the votes would be defended with blood, it could not have been imagined that such a defence, in the conditions of the rule of law, would also be included in their programme. This is the point where the criminalisation of the party is marked without any equivocation, and the socialists’ tendency to spread this spirit to their base as well. Signs of anti-democratic organisation have long been evident, as in Ruçi’s statement made about two months ago on the creation of special groups that would guard the ballot boxes. Only an anti-legal mentality could lead to such ideas and organisations. Point number two is the Socialist Party’s point of opening up to everyone, since only part of it is very small. Their sincerity for a party with democratic boundaries is incomprehensible except to opportunists who have been pushed by this party’s first ideas down to the base. They further demand an absolute majority of votes in parliament so as to secure as well as possible Albania’s backward step and the reversal of reforms. In fact, no further declarations were needed in this statement. A socialist agreement means an enslaved majority, isolation and poverty. So any further explanation is superfluous. People know them well for what they are. They have also warned Albanians of a new administration, which is the most open threat to today’s administration of Albania and to the entire institutional reform carried out by the democratic government. To win an administration, according to Albanian communists, it was neither necessary to carry out the December Revolution nor for the opposition to emerge. But the socialists are not satisfied even with what they offered their own voters and others. In a couple of other points, they speak of a mixed economy in which the state and the private sector coexist. Their vision of economic development fits the framework of privatization and the consolidation of the private economy, as seemed clear in 1992. Albanian shareholders ultimately followed the unknown, and the enterprise would be destroyed if it were to be forced to secure the jobs they have promised. Otherwise, this means coming to power through impoverishment. In point six they have announced the elimination of large owners and only the stimulation of small and medium-sized business, which means nothing other than the absolute return of the state into the economy and, moreover, the elimination of others’ achievements and the elevation of their own. An Albania led by the socialists will be an Albania without wealthy people and without major initiatives. It will be only Albania of power and of the state, but not of the individual and his strength. Thus a socialist victory would create greater space for the socialist leadership and socialist office-holders, not for Albania and democracy. After thinking through all these declarations, it was not necessary to write the statement to the Democratic Party, which is the fourth point. There it is stated that it will remain faithful to the pace of movement ensured by democratic governance and will expand Albania’s international reputation and integration into Europe. The categorical position of the socialists has been permanently against this achieved pace, aiming at slowing down and isolating the country. However hard they try to exploit the successes of this party among poor people, the explanation of the words they have projected in the other points of the statement is impossible. For the next four years, the Democratic Party has a more advanced programme than this one, and after four years the socialists may once again seek the realisations of the future democratic government.

The Council of Ministers will soon consider the draft law on the declaration of assets by elected persons and high-ranking officials. This law aims to verify the moral standing and wealth of elected persons as well as senior state officials. This law will serve as a measure in the fight against corruption at different levels of central and local government. High-ranking officials will declare their assets and the sources of this income. A nine-member commission, with representatives from the People’s Assembly, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Court of Cassation and the State Control Service, will examine the declarations of high-ranking officials and carry out verification according to a set schedule.

Interview with President Berisha, after returning from France Yesterday, at the farewell ceremony for the former French president, François Mitterrand, in Paris, alongside many high-ranking world figures, the President of the Republic of Albania, Sali Berisha, also took part. President Berisha stated to Albanian television: Yesterday, Paris, France, but also all of Europe, gave its final farewell, with particular dignity and great honors, to the former French President François Mitterrand, who led the country for 14 consecutive years. Mitterrand will remain in the memory of the French nation, but also of Europe, as one of the Presidents and statesmen of this century with influence, who worked with great dedication for European integration. And it was no coincidence that he received all those honors from all the heads of state and government from across Europe and the whole world. Mitterrand was a tireless fighter for the values of democracy. He gave real, genuine, valuable help to the countries that emerged from communist dictatorship, among them Albania. Without a doubt, he was also a distinguished friend of Albania and the Albanian people. Mitterrand was also a tireless fighter against chauvinism; with human dignity, strength and particular courage, he stood up to it until the final moments of his life. During the lunch hosted by President Jacques Chirac at the Élysée, I had the opportunity to greet and exchange views with President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Alain Juppé, as well as the distinguished Mr. ... They discussed their visits to Albania and the support they will give Albania in its integration into Europe. During the same lunch, I had brief and cordial exchanges of views with President Herzog, Chancellor Helmut Kohl, U.S. Vice President Al Gore, President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, the presidents of the region: the President of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, President Demirel of Turkey, President Gonz, President Havel, President Zhelev, with the prime ministers of the Western European countries, the Queen of the Netherlands, the Queen of Belgium, and with the President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer. In all these meetings, my interlocutors assured me that they would support Albania economically, support Albania’s integration into Europe, and intensify measures and efforts for further cooperation in all fields, especially in concrete relations in which Albania has vital interests. I will have greater coherence and understanding, and it was held in the spirit of the final message that President Mitterrand left in Berlin, when he declared that the last legacy left behind is the spirit of cooperation, and such was also the lunch hosted by President Jacques Chirac at the Élysée.

Pëllumbi refuses to respond in order to stir up the emotion of Kadare’s statement. The acquaintance and editorial judgment of Kadare is not much liked by him as a restriction of freedom. Much less should such a thing be expected from this personality on matters so important for Albanians as the choice of government. If Kadare has thought that Pëllumbi should not come to power, that does not mean that this exchange has made the above statement a new cause in Paris, as Pëllumbi says, but because Pëllumbi fears the Socialist Party and because Pëllumbi is for Albanians. Kadare’s participation in the Albanian political debate is his elementary right, which does not differ from the right of all Albanians to take part in this debate. Socialist Party deputy chair Servet Pëllumbi, in an interview given to "Koha Jonë", calls Kadare’s action a diversion against the PS, which, judging from the basis of the above right according to Pëllumbi, means that all those who do not want the Socialist Party to win are carrying out a diversion against it. Naturally, Kadare is a well-known Albanian and his statement is of greater interest than others’. But the denial of this right is intolerable even in the more moderate countries to which Pëllumbi refuses to give further response in order to heighten the emotion of Kadare’s statement. The acquaintance and editorial judgment of Kadare is not very suitable for a restriction of freedom on his part. Much less should such a thing be expected from this personality for matters so important for Albanians as the choice of government. If Kadare has thought that Pëllumbi should not come to power, that does not mean that this exchange has made the above statement a new cause in Paris, as Pëllumbi says, but because Pëllumbi fears the Socialist Party. In the PS, Kadare’s right to express his opinion and to have a public opinion on these issues cannot be disregarded either. This is the only inference from the opinion and from the judgment of this politician about Ismail Kadare. This writer’s right over Pëllumbi and those who follow him is historical and not merely the result of temporary circumstances. SAMI NEZA

PËLLUMBI: “We have also heard about the filing of such a request, and that does not frighten us.... we are also aware of another fact: large sums of money have been placed at the disposal of the initiator of this list...” DOKLE: “That is a lie” EDI PALOKA At a time when the entire official press was publishing the news of a split in the PS, publicly confirmed by Pëllumbi and prompted by the statement of the PS deputy chairman at a press conference, those same PS leaders come out accusing "RD" of having fabricated both this claim and the real fact of the filing of a request for the nomination of a reformed PS. Driven by this, at a press conference before more than twenty journalists, Servet Pëllumbi stated verbatim: “We have also heard about the filing of such a request, and we are not frightened by it.” This expression by Pëllumbi (which was fortunately also recorded on a dictaphone) was falsified the next day in "ZP", with the words added: “but we do not know how true it is.” Words that Pëllumbi never said, the falsification is very crude because the other words of the PS deputy chairman, who states that not only does he know about a reformed PS but also that dirty money has been placed at the disposal of the initiator, were omitted. Especially with this attempt to soften what in fact had been a testimony from Dokle, entirely unembellished with stress, the journalist who does not hesitate to present him as an intellectual contradicts himself. “Our aim here was to prove that the socialists do not exist. That is a lie.” So who is the liar, RD? “Albana” or Servet Pëllumbi, who keeps Dokle by his side? The journalist from Albania asked a question and it was the PS deputy chairman who confirmed it to all the journalists. It is clear that Pëllumbi hurriedly also made something else clear for the first time. By now the Albanian public has become familiar with the lies and denials of Pëllumbi and Dokle on the issue of the 400 thousand dollars, but this kind of thing will continue. The problem is that Dokle still cannot understand that the time of politics with the concepts of the working class has passed. He does not understand his failure in politics, despite the fact that others have tried very hard to explain it. Dokle is destined to remain a political clown, a clown-chairman and a clown-politician. The confused socialist leaders would do well to get their stories straight with one another before making statements beyond their wishes, because otherwise the crisis is prolonged from Bënça by hand, and they cannot save face by shrugging off the gaffes while always blaming "RD".

SERVET PËLLUMBI What Kadare says — that socialists should not come to power because that makes them more reformable — we did back in ’92. So effectively, in ’92 the PS agreed with that result, the PD president for success in carrying out its programme, for implementing the promises made to the electorate, and after its Congress we stayed with ’92. The PS positioned itself as an opposition force. “KJ” 12/1/1996 MAQO LAKRORI The process of reforming the party is spread over time and will continue as long as the party itself exists. This process of reform has been conceived by some party members or leaders and they want it to proceed as quickly as possible. Others, depending on their vision of internal developments, or also for reasons of specific interests, conceive it differently, as a slower process and with different modalities. “ZP”. 12/1/1996

From the PS heritage archive Minutes of the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee of the PPSH, dated 2 and 3 July 1974 p.7

Today at 10:00 in the Palace of Congresses in Tirana, the Expanded National Council of the PDSH meets, with the participation of: Chairman, PD Secretary, FRPD chairman, MPs, the Chairwoman of the LDGSH, mayors and district heads (if they are from the PD), and the Prefect. Members of the Working Groups from the Center.

p.3

MAQO LAKRORI I am part of that large majority of people who want the party and not among those individuals who wish to use it. “ZP” 12.1.1996

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