The number of Albanians repatriated reaches 3,500 ON PAGE 4

Accusations by Italy’s national anti-mafia prosecutor ON PAGE 4

Socialist government officials reveal their incompetence ON PAGE 4

The National Council of the PD supports demands for the resignation of the rulers of crime. “The spirit of the protests, the spirit of victory” The fifth day of protests against the establishment of dictatorship. Thousands of demonstrators say no to political crime

When bullets were fired at the Democratic Party deputy inside the premises of the Albanian Parliament by a Socialist Party deputy, everyone was shocked by this event, long absent from the histories of Europe’s parliaments. While Albanians were forced to swallow this shameful national episode, the first messages of irresponsibility came from the Albanian state. None of the people in today’s government rose above the sullied division among ordinary Albanians; indeed, they did not even reach the level of understanding shown by people in cafés when discussing the event. Albanian television, which is unfortunately run by a faithful servant of the prime minister’s offices, reported the news according to a cooperative-style formula: the opening came from such-and-such a place, followed by another item from such-and-such a place. The news was broadcast to people only to sever its ties with the great tradition and reshape it as quickly as possible. The implication is that such things can happen from time to time, since they are also commonplace. No media outlet in a civilized country would dare to convey such a message. It would immediately feel threatened by the greatest boycott possible. If that happened in Albania, then Mediapr… Mediani or Nano would be watched on television only by women and children. This was repeated just four hours after the sensational event. As if that were not enough, the country’s top government official compounded the mistake by saying that this was a customary-law killing. The President said it was a primitive killing; the official news reporter wrote that Matreku had been forced by his family members to shoot Hajdari, while Meidani’s two napkins at the Presidency, Zogaj and Nazarko, wrote in their newspaper in large letters—entirely unrelated to the wreckage, but intended to feed the many Albanians the old story, ‘20, Hajdari was shot because of the Kanun’. Thus, within a few hours, the opposition to Hajdari’s wounds was created. Rarely can the official media—the RTSH, ATSH, private newspapers such as “Dita Informacion” and “Koha Jonë,” the people who write statements in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Presidency, as well as the President of the Republic himself and the Albanian prime minister—be so severely condemned. Meanwhile, by creating this official version of the event, it was legitimized, at least temporarily, that in the Parliament in Tirana one could be killed for any kind of reason, as in any country in the world, in a car crash or an ordinary theft. By defending the thugs at the Socialist Party headquarters, mud was thrown at the 150 members of Parliament, at Parliament as an institution, at what gives Parliament its character, and at what people expected from it. It is the only day on which rare symbols are respected, but in the midst of the Socialist Party headquarters there is a guard, four secretaries, and Dritan Maliko with Petko Kocin. Of course, this parliament’s level had not risen above what the former Tirana Party Committee represented, but no one had ever imagined that one day Parliament would be turned into a kebab shop by the leading figures of the Albanian state. The comments from the highest state offices about the wounding of Azem Hajdari are the most frightening signal of the next murder and of further killings. Today in Albania, even if you are in Parliament, even if you are a member of Parliament, you find yourself facing a state that supposedly has its own institutions. The bullets in Parliament were the bullets most justified by the state’s leaders among the hundreds of thousands of bullets that have flown into Albanians’ bellies and bodies. All that remains is for the legitimate tool that enters and leaves Parliament to be violently destroyed on the streets as well; they enter and leave on the PS’s streets, they spare neither people nor the prime minister and president, nor their own foot soldiers.

The authors of the plot had asked one of the union leaders in Tepelenë, a Another scenario for the physical disappearance of Democratic leaders

The authors of the plot had asked one of the union leaders in Tepelenë, a local Democrat who had supported Azem in the December trade union movement, to bring Azem to Tepelenë, and they would fill him with gold union leaders in Tepelenë, a local Democrat who had supported Azem in the December trade union movement, to bring Azem to Tepelenë, and they would fill him with gold ON PAGE 3

The day after the PS crime in the Albanian Parliament ON PAGE 3

The leaders of the party of crime, remotely controlled by the head of the Clique, Fatos Nano, decided not to accept the demands of the protesters opposing the installation of dictatorship The PS leadership takes the Mazreku crime further ON PAGE 3

The domestic market is suffering a 10–12% increase in imported food prices ON PAGE 3

Finance minister accused of having been a pyramid-scheme expert: “Malaj, why didn’t you warn us?” Association for the Return of the Money:

PD: State indifference toward attacks on journalists. The assault on Bejdo Malo is condemned ON PAGE 3

Two Fatoses and one Yll cannot hide the political crime behind the code of the mountains The farce of the television debate on the Kanun ON PAGE 3

The DP condemns the rigged trial against Rufi Osmani The Democratic Party of Albania yesterday expressed “its deep indignation at the Macedonian court’s sentencing of the Mayor of Gostivar, Mr. Rufi Osmani, to 13 years in prison.” It considers Mr. Osmani’s sentence “a political punishment by Macedonian chauvinists against a man who is trying to defend the rights of the Albanians of Gostivar by defending the Albanian national symbol, the flag.” The Democratic Party also once again confirmed “its position of strong support for the rights of Albanians living in Macedonia, considering this to be the main factor in creating a friendly climate not only between the two countries but also a climate of understanding in the region.”