DECISIONS/ The government hands Berisha classified data, sales and statistics THE ALL-POWERFUL ONE The Prime Minister seizes secrets and procurement Klosi and Gjoni: A concentration of political power The news Prime Minister Sali Berisha is concentrating even more power in his own hands, removing from the powers of the Council of Ministers an even more delicate institution such as the Classified Information Directorate. TIRANA POLI HOXHA Prime Minister Sali Berisha decided yesterday to expand his own powers, with several decisions concerning secret information, official statistical data, public procurement and the Agency for Research, Technology and Innovation. With the four decisions announced yesterday, by replacing the phrase “under the Council of Ministers” with “under the Prime Minister”, the head of government will be the only official who will hold and administer the state's secret information, its official statistics, data on public procurement, and those on innovation and technology. The most sensitive point, though not the only one, concerns one of the articles of Law no. 8457 “On classified information, state secret.” It is a correction to the first paragraph of Article 25 of this law. In the paragraph “The Directorate for the Security of Classified Information is...” continues on page 2 In the photo: Prime Minister Sali Berisha

Interview Pages 6-7 Edmond Panariti: The work we will do in Tirana ARBEN ROZHANI

BLOG/Periphery BY ALBA MALLTEZI Between Berisha and Rama “I hope and wish that this year will inspire every Albanian to make a new start in their attitudes toward the past, toward the present, toward the country. The performance of the Albanian economy in 2011 was such that it generated more revenue than ever before in the country's history. I want to inform every Albanian citizen that tax and customs revenues as of 31 December 2011 were 295 billion lek, which was 400 million dollars more than in 2009,” said Prime Minister Berisha at the government meeting. The leader of the Socialist Party, Edi Rama, responds on Twitter: “The government proposes that Albanians be happy because there is no economic crisis, no unemployment and no injustice, only great world achievements. We propose an Albanian rebirth to leave behind the old habit of lies and chaos together with the economy, society and the state.” Albanians are starting this 2012 as well amid extreme political messages: the optimism of Prime Minister Berisha and the pessimism of opposition leader Edi Rama. Throughout all these years, we ourselves have learned to find the golden mean of a seemingly stable balance, otherwise we would go crazy. The country's prime minister, utterly different from the opposition Berisha, is projecting people much more into an unreal dimension: that of dream, of fiction; it seems as if he is more concerned with healing the soul... we are trapped by the jaws of fools and geniuses. We journalists are in the middle as well, but closer to criticism... continues on page 7

NEW YEAR Topi, Berisha, Topalli in Albania, Rama in the USA. The mayor of Tirana JAKIN MARENA The country's highest officials, Topi, Topalli and Berisha, spent the year-end holidays in the capital, while the deputy leader of the Socialist Party, Ruçi, was also in the capital. Mayor Rama celebrated in the USA, while the mayor of Tirana, Basha, was in the Netherlands... continues on page 4

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Lunch.com BY MIRA KAZHANI Ngjela: Albanians happy like frogs at the bottom of a well Page 9

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