“The voters: We knew who would win” Voting for the chairman of the PS in Tirana. 390 Saimir Tahiri and 153 Ilir Zela What happened yesterday in the TOB hall. Lobby groups for both candidates met with members of the Assembly. Fear at 10:00 about a victory with 90% of the votes and how Tahiri’s win was reduced News The expanded Assembly of the PS of the city of Tirana voted yesterday, electing a new chairman of the socialists in the capital, Saimir Tahiri. He won by a wide margin against the candidate Ilir Zela. Meanwhile, all the backstage details that led to Tahiri’s election to lead the PS in Tirana have been made known. TIRANE JAKIN MARENA The race between the two candidates to lead the capital, which began in the early morning hours, ended after five hours of voting and counting with the announcement of the new chairman. At the same time, it shed light on the backstage maneuvers behind the choice of Baraj’s successor. From yesterday onward, it will be Saimir Tahiri who will more closely lead the most important branch of the PS in the country, that of Tirana. He managed to get 390 votes while Zela got 153 votes, as they voted... Continued on page 3 In the photo: PS chairman Edi Rama voting for the head of the PS in Tirana

The laser devices, damaged for years, unfairly punish drivers. Here are the facts EXPERT EVIDENCE TIRANE ARBEN RROZHANI The laser radars used by the traffic police in Albania to punish offenders who drive at high speed have been damaged for years and they punish them... Pages 4–5

Editorial BY EDI RAMA Lezhë’s betrayal of trust It is hard to find, no matter how much you dig through the history of states that deserve to be called such, such a shameful display of even the formal absence of the state as the one on yesterday’s March 2 in Lezhë. The celebrations The famous Besëlidhja of Skanderbeg and the Albanian state five and a half centuries later appear, without the tomb of the National Hero, as the most tattered image of itself. In no challenge, however meaningful, of Albania, never does a grave [e?] of an event remembered by the Arbëresh over the years also unite enemies in the commemorative ritual, can happen what happened to the Albanian state precisely in the year five hundred and sixty of the celebration of a day so marked, when the seed was sown of the unity of Albanians for freedom as a nation. A state reduced to ridicule to the point of pain appeared as a body without a head, honoring the hero himself the greatest, and spoke with the delirious mouth of a part of the body of Albania that tries against its will to embody all of Albania. The head of state was for an evening before so that Albania would not speak before the grave of the National Hero with the language of national unity, which the Constitution of the present-day Albanian Republic clearly defines as being expressed through the figure of the President of the Republic. The scramble for power and the smell of blood boiling within the torn body of the Democratic Party have unhinged the head of the Albanian government to the point that it can no longer make any distinction, even formal, between itself and the state, if it sees the state only as an atavistic extension of itself. Just as the former has been reduced... Continued on page 3

Springtime Albania 1919 • the surprising documents of the American consul Joseph Emerson Haven Pages 13–20

Hitler “speaks” Albanian with “Mein Kampf” Page 12

Page 2 Lajla Përrnaska: The government needs a refresh

Page 9 Ilia Basho to witnesses: Don’t say anything!

Pages 22–23 Studies in Italy, here are the 600 names that will be tested

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