The left-wing coalition votes for the 1998 budget. Consumers, through prices, will pay the price of the 34 billion in budget revenues Left-wing budget policies threaten the country’s stability. The PD rejects the new crisis figures The budget presented by the Nano government represents the failure of the governing platform of the left-wing coalition. It is loaded with unrealizable figures and, more than anything else, with the weapon of trying to implement measures through the burden of those same figures. In the end, Albanians find themselves threatened by a projection into a year of hardship, and no light is visible at the end of the tunnel. In no respect is there any hope from which Albanians can expect an exit from the crisis. A tangle of figures has covered the lines of the Pashko-Malaj project, once again signaling the inflation of the prime minister’s economic adviser’s constant irresponsibility. In the end, it remains that Albanians will pay for this smoke for as long as they tolerate their constant impoverishment by a government that is constantly enriching itself. The government project, which was just approved by the vote of the majority, is the first seal of the hardening of the Albanian crisis in the very beginning of the difficult period the country has experienced since 1990. To govern means to shape all possibilities in the service of advancement and not to reduce all possibilities to demagoguery. Up to now this government has offered Albanians daily sacrifices with negative figures in all macroeconomic indicators. In no way can an optimistic situation be fostered through financial deception, or even more by using this method every night at Albanians’ dinner tables. The budget bears the signature of the economic failure of the Nano government. Until now the boundaries set for individuals by this government in the fields of politics, information, and rights have been joined by the narrow straitjacket of economic restriction. The high taxes that will violate the pockets of officials and the roughly 1,500 closest segments of this government will endlessly empty the pockets of all other Albanians, impoverishing the possibility of the individual and ultimately erasing it as a defining feature of development in capitalism. The Nano government’s budget is a project of war against opportunity, a war against individual enrichment. With the strengthening of the state apparatus, which for the Nano government means the strengthening of the rulers and the clans around them, they have decided to empty the other potentials that lie outside the iron circle of these top rulers and their clans. In the end, it is claimed that Albania will be moved only by capitalism for the poor and not directed toward people close to the government. No one else, in a tax state, under police pressure and under the violence of state and common thieves, can be safe in their business. The first signs have already been given. In six months the government made 70,000 Albanians unemployed, with no significant aid from Europe and no funding secured by the officials for any of their projects other than those of the previous PD government. Even these latter, under the Nano government’s conditions, are doubtful; the former communists have filled Albania with great uncertainty regarding the European presence. Nano’s officials have the capacity to corrupt even the most successful business abroad, through smuggling and mafia channels they have built in the bowels of the Albanian state structures. In the end, the budget contains all those things the current government wants. The deception line used throughout its drafting is a feature that, unfortunately, is being attributed to every Albanian in order to awaken as much as possible the agony of the great crisis the country is experiencing.

The opposition is being renewed in the South. Yesterday the conference of the PD branch in Tepelena The hall for four hours under the chants “Down with communism,” “Sali Berisha.” The head of the PD branch is elected Viktor Guma ON PAGE 2

The chairman of the PD receives German ambassador Disdorn. The PD’s meetings in the cities of the south are valued PD chairman Sali Berisha will meet with German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. “Yesterday the PD leader received German ambassador Hans Peter Disdorn at the latter’s request, presenting Berisha with the German foreign minister Kinkel’s wish to meet the democratic leader during his visit to Tirana this weekend. Berisha regarded Minister Kinkel’s visit as an event in the relations between our two countries and expressed his satisfaction with the meeting with the German minister. The meeting discussed the current situation in the country as well as the PD’s stance on recent developments. Mr. Berisha informed Ambassador Disdorn of the PD presidency’s decision of 3 February 1998 to recommend to the National Council that the PD parliamentary group’s non-participation in parliament be ended, as well as the PD’s determination to engage in a fruitful constitutional dialogue. Berisha stressed that he has always stated that there can be no question of a final boycott, but rather of non-acceptance. Ambassador Disdorn said that he greatly values the PD’s commitment to the country’s parliamentary life and hopes that the National Council will approve the PD presidency’s recommendations. He showed interest in the PD’s activities, especially in the south of the country, and valued them. At this meeting, other issues of concern for the country were also discussed, focusing in particular on the rise in crime by law-enforcement forces, former State Security officers, and people implicated in the involvement of senior government officials in massive smuggling, which[?] is leading to the destabilization of the country and the installation of a dictatorship.

Playing with Islamic services to divide Albanians The head of SHIK, Fatos Klosi, is defending himself by saying that he is not simply a tool of Fatos Nano at the head of the reinstated Sigurims, but a dangerous monster, comparable to those of Enver Hoxha’s time. Now, inside SHIK, the disinformation sector has been reopened; it has been placed at the disposal of the government press to destroy everything that remains of the institution that was rebuilt after the fall of the dictatorship in 1992. A falsifier of the 29 June electoral commission, he, together with the deficient Thimo Kondi, were rewarded by Fatos Nano with high government positions. And on this day Nano’s chosen man is proving that he is comparable to the rapists who led the State Security in Enver Hoxha’s time. The game with the Islamic secret services is a dirty attempt to divide Albanians, cooked up by those who are not Albanians at all. Fatos Klosi, like his master, Fatos Nano, is one of them. In addition to needing to motivate the weakening of the institution and bring it fully under the control of the Sigurims, this dirty game is also a provocation for Albanians, as well as a serious blow to Albania’s relations with Arab countries. Fatos Klosi’s time in that post is very short, and he should think carefully before throwing such provocative bombs at all Albanians. He must know that the job of head of SHIK cannot allow him, like a street drunkard, to repeat in the newspapers all the prime minister’s hallucinations. Even if there were some truth in his words, he should not speak about them but rather apply the laws of the state. All the more so when he gives no facts, no dates and no names, proving that he is nothing more than a monster of the same kind as those who led the infamous State Security.

Berisha: The prisoners’ strike is a symbol of resistance against the Nano regime ON PAGE 2

The PD denounces police violence against trade unionists and hunger strikers ON PAGE 2

Pollo: The two resolutions have entered the parliamentary bureau’s review process ON PAGE 3

Breaking news With 99.99% of the votes in favor, the socialist budget of the socialist government passed yesterday in the socialist parliament. After the vote, an emotional deputy said: “Let my vote be a bullet for the internal and external enemy.” Another stated: “Compared with 1923, in this government our country has advanced so far that other capitalist countries need years to catch up with us.” Prime Minister Nano, moved to tears, wiped them with the trousers of Fino and Islam, who were beside him, and said: “May the people unite around the party and move from victory to victory.” The figure 99.99% has not been heard for 7-8 years in any different vote...

Clarification from the PD press office for “Voice of America” In its radio broadcasts, “Voice of America”, referring to a press conference of the Democratic Party given on 3.2.1998, stated that “the PD has decided to enter parliament, which it had abandoned during the last 7[?] months”. The PD spokesman clarifies that this news comes from an inaccurate source. The Democratic Party has entered parliament and blocked it for a reason not of its own choosing, but imposed by the bodies of the ruling coalition against PDSH deputies. Azem Hajdari, PDSH[?] helped, outside parliament as a strong protest against the violation of constitutional laws and parliamentary procedures by the current leadership of the Albanian parliament. In press conferences over the mentioned months, PDSH has declared that there can be no question of a final boycott of the assembly, and that it clearly considers parliamentarism a fundamental principle of its program. With its protest of non-participation in parliament, the PD wants to raise awareness among institutions and Western chancelleries about the serious violations of constitutional laws and parliamentary procedures by the accusations of parliament and the absurd, unacceptable attempts of the regime to use the opposition as a façade in the country’s life. This is most clearly shown by well-known positions and the resolution of the Council of Europe, European parliaments and American legislators. These are also demonstrated by the statement of the delegation to the European Parliament, the Council of Europe bulletin and the statement of the US State Department against Tirana. Precisely for this reason, the PD presidency decided to recommend to the National Council the return of the PD parliamentary group to parliament. The PD spokesman concludes that state media are trying to verify the source of the news before broadcasting it.

Frrok Çupi comes forward as guarantor ON PAGE 6

32 infants near death ON PAGE 6

The deputy director of Intelligence, the correspondent of the “Gazeta” ON PAGE 6