The Tirana Conference, 14–20 April 1956 Dictator Hoxha—the gravedigger of the Conference From the Socialist Party’s archive The Tirana Conference, 14–20 April 1956 Another dark page in the history of the Party of Labour Dictator Hoxha—the gravedigger of the Conference p. 7

. The Socialists have formulated their electoral campaign on the basis of nihilism. They have a complete record, both in party activity and in parliament, which has established their track record of destructive and abandonment-oriented platforms. The Socialists’ electoral appeal is based on such a policy, which has made this party appear to be a political force that would change course in every aspect of the reform, also changing the functions of the current democratic system. All this is a major question mark: procedurally, do the Socialists intend to continue Albania’s capitalization, or will there be a U-turn on everything achieved so far? The Socialists’ trajectory is highly dubious. They have already declared that they will change the laws, while offering an evasive definition of the nature of the laws they intend to change. So far, they have voted against all the fundamental laws of the country’s economic, political, and legislative reform. They voted against or abstained on the human rights law; they were entirely opposed to army reform, thereby obstructing the adoption of Western forms in the Albanian army. Considered more broadly, this is also real opposition to Albania’s integration into NATO, despite their having legally declared themselves in favor of Albania’s admission to the Atlantic Alliance. They opposed privatization laws and have constantly tried to obstruct privatization, thereby also putting the brakes on the capitalist integration of the Albanian economy. Opposition to privatization was intended to limit investment in Albania and sabotage assistance from the World Bank in Albania. This also created the conditions for rejecting economic aid and for planning major investment programs by the European Union. The Socialists’ position toward the alternatives and the reform program is another manifestation of the tendency to isolate Albania, which would later serve as an electoral argument in other elections. Here… other elections. The Socialists’ opposition to Albania’s entry into the Council of Europe and, later, their endless, wholly fictitious reports of human rights violations submitted to various European bodies constitute the full scheme by which the Socialist leadership sought to give Albania an anti-European face. The legal system has been one of the systems most persistently targeted by the Socialists. They opposed legal reform and exerted great pressure on Albanian courts, repeatedly undermining their independence. This is also a reflection of the alternatives proposed by the Albanian Socialists, on which the left-wing opposition relied during four years of intensive change in Albania. This is also the political record of the Socialist leader before the Albanian electorate. Their promises are diametrically opposed to the political and economic life Albania has experienced over these four years. In this case, the natural course of change is distorted, entailing the distortion of the potential that has been created: the individual’s capitalist mentality, coexistence with capitalism as a form of economy, and democracy as a form of political and social life. In this case, we have a reduction in speed, or a reversal along the opposite vector. In situations created by negation, it is impossible to establish the conditions for the continuity the Socialists promise. When competing alternatives are opposed, the issue is not continuity but moving forward or turning back. In the economy, in politics, and in social life, the Socialists have not for a moment offered an alternative that would contradict their promises to maintain the pace of development. Indeed, this promise sounds entirely absurd given their complete absence from even one of the parameters of the pace of development.

58% of the points for the Albanian right All the left-wing parties together: only 29% Among the parties, the Republican Party is third First Eurobarometer results The Albanian right has 58 percent of the points, compared with 29 percent for the left. This is the latest result from the conclusions of the Eurobarometer in Brussels. The results were obtained following a poll conducted by Eurobarometer in Albania during December. The figures received from European Union headquarters once again show that the victory of the democratic forces is indisputable. Albanians have decided to move to the right, which in Albania’s political environment means determination to pursue reforms and Albania’s integration into Europe. Eurobarometer included the Democratic Party, the Right-Wing League, PBDNJ, and the Christian Democratic Party among the Albanian right, while the left included the Social Democratic Party and the “Democratic Alliance” Party. The figure for the left is an effective indicator that also reflects the “contribution” this part of the political spectrum has made to carrying out reform in Albania, and clearly reflects the conservative tendencies and remnants of the past within this wing, which can find no support among the Albanian electorate. According to Eurobarometer, the Republican Party is in third place, with the Social Democratic Party and PAD several places behind. The above results represent only some of the many conclusions Eurobarometer has drawn in Albania. As can be seen from the figures above, the results… American, while, compared with Eurobarometer’s own figures from last year, there has been a marked increase in the electorate supporting the Democratic Party and right-wing forces. The left-wing press has been quite aggressive toward polls recently conducted by independent national and international institutions. Left-wing forces have tried to downplay the pro-democratic reality in Albania, which has now also been confirmed by Brussels. Despite this reaction, reality remains stubborn. The convergence of several results from prestigious institutions confirms the success of democratic governance and reforms in Albania, while once again calling on the Democratic Party to lead the processes.

An anti-intellectual stance is not only an integral part of the Socialist Party’s political course, but also an obsession of this party’s leadership. Declarations about violence, launches, slander, insults, and threats have become the favorite tools of the caste of Marxist conservatives at the head of the Socialist Party in its fight against intellectuals. With this stance, (caught up in the maelstrom of a deep crisis) these anti-intellectual figures at the head of the Socialist Party, because of their compromised past, which severely discredits them, have not only shut the door of party membership to these intellectuals, but also continue to insult them. In this vein, yesterday on the front page of “ZP” they also announced their guarantees of certain defeat. One of these guarantees is undoubtedly the anathema pronounced by the head of this party against the newspapers “RD” and “Albania”, labeling them “anti-intellectual organs.” To label these publications in this way is to insult in the most shameless and vulgar manner the most distinguished intellectuals of the Albanian nation, who have continually appeared in the pages of these newspapers with their writing, beginning with the giant of Albanian letters Ismail Kadare and continuing with other honored names such as Ramadani Sokoli, Çesk Zadeja,Bardhyl Londo, Zija Çela,Vath Koreshi, Halil Sykja,Sokol Shupo,Visar Zhiti, Kozma Lara,Adrian Civici, Ilia Telo,Zhani Çiko,Bahri Beçi, Mustafa Arapi,Gazmend Muka, Alush Shima,Edi Hila, Begir Meta and dozens and dozens of other intellectuals. This “yardstick” the opposition uses to measure the “anti-intellectualism” of these newspapers is the most significant proof of its obsession with genuine intellectuals. It is the most resounding evidence of the criminal conscience of this party’s leader. To choose as an alternative, in order to compete in the electoral race, such insults directed at the cultural and scientific elite of a nation is nothing more or less than political perversity. And this perversity deserves only one prize: contempt. It has only one destination: defeat, extinction, degradation.

From the central headquarters of the Socialist Party (PS) in Tirana, the person most trusted by F. Nano—or the new Albanian “socialist” mannequin, Ilir Meta—was sent to take part in the third conference of this party’s branch for the Kavaja district. His selection for this mission is understandable. Gramoz Ruçi, even though he acts as if he had not been interior minister in the governments of Alia and Nano, and was a sinner in the massacre of 2 April 1991 in Shkodra, nevertheless knows full well that in the city of Josif Buda, Jak Shtini, Mir Veliu, Ilir Ruga, Qazim Karici, Idriz Kazazi, etc., he is hated and unwelcome, both for the crimes of yesterday and for today’s party and personal sins. Servet Pellumbi, too, cannot forget the curses the people of Kavaja have hurled at him whenever he has passed through their city, even in transit, or dared to stop for a few moments. Thus Ilir Meta was judged to be the most suitable person. Although he is not as sinful as the comrades in the cause who ordered him to go to Kavaja, to the people of Kavaja Ilir Meta is still just as hated, unbearable, and unwelcome as they are—as the party flag he waves and the socialism he preaches. Having been among the best pupils of the old professors in the art of lying and deception, hypocrisy and demagoguery, he spouted crocodile tears over Kavaja’s fifty-year-old troubles and those of the transition, and shouted himself hoarse promising wonders that he himself does not believe, and that neither the “alternative” nor the “program” of his party could deliver even by the time little Ilir becomes a hundred-year-old man. Like all the comrades in the PS leadership, he tried to conceal with his handkerchief the achievements, or fruits, of nearly four years of democracy in the towns and villages of this district: villas, hotels and motels, new apartment blocks, attractive on the outside and spacious inside, large establishments of modern standards in their premises and products, and powerful private companies and enterprises now operating with hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. In just three years, from 1993 to 1995, as many residential apartments were provided as had not been provided in 20 years of Meta’s “antisocialism.” Blinded in both eyes, in accordance with the leadership’s instructions and interests, Ilir Meta did not mention at all, and denied, the projects in the first phase of the 5 million DM generously provided by the German government for this city’s infrastructure. As though he had come from another planet, he advertised the fifty-year-old wounds that his socialism had inflicted on Kavaja, and portrayed them as the fruits of the PD government; therefore, according to him, Kavaja should turn its back on this party and vote again for the structure in the bosom of the PS, Nano, Dokle, Ruçi, and Pellumbi, who cannot sleep and are wasting away like candles over Kavaja’s still-unresolved problems.

Servet Pellumbi presented the prophetic cards of the Socialist Party’s defeat at the Tirana Conference. Applauded by a handful of “underprivileged” cap-wearers and ten or twenty former officers of the Sigurimi, who are seeking to practise their former profession at any cost, the socialist leader laid out before the electorate the priorities of the policy of continuity and the brilliant governing record of the former communist camp, converted according to the principles of the creative Marxism of former Party School lecturer Pellumbi. The latter’s résumé justified the lack of a socialist alternative, the vacuum of an artificial identity, the wearing out of its figures, the deterioration of the edifice of unity around Marxism, its criminal legacy and the control of party structures, the control secretly exercised over the political platform, etc., serving the electorate the compromised image of the red pole: that of the impenetrable objectives of the structures of the PPSH and of Hoxhaism. The seven so-called “priorities” of the PS electoral platform, which Pellumbi amplifies as “common ground” with the PD, Hoxhism, Extinction, Degradation.

Chirac writes to Berisha President Berisha has received a letter from the President of France, Jacques Chirac, who writes, among other things: “I wish to confirm to you my desire to deepen the relations of friendship and cooperation with your country, with a view to bringing Albania closer to the European Union.” Press and Information Office of the President

Is Gjinushi lying, or is “KJ”? On the front page of “KJ,” Mendiluce describes the anti-genocide law as undemocratic, while in “KJ” itself, on page four, Mendiluce calls it a normal law that cannot be described as undemocratic p. 3 For things to be like this, these organs would have to insult in the most shameless and vulgar way the most honoured intellectuals of the Albanian nation, who have always been present. N.GJINI