Yesterday a large Socialist Party rally in Durrës We will know how to win Speech by PS deputy chairman Servet Pëllumbi Members and supporters of the PS Brothers and sisters of Durrës It is a pleasure for us to be today among you, who were the first to respond to the messages of the KPPD for an electoral offensive and to organize mass actions in defense of democracy, of human rights and freedom. The support you have given and are giving to the PS, which will surely be followed by large-scale, deeply democratic activities throughout the country, is the best answer to those who irresponsibly declare that the PS has ... (continued on page 6) Chronicle Albanian socialists begin the electoral tour toward victory in the general elections. As they had decided only a few days earlier at the meeting of the Steering Committee, Servet Pëllumbi, deputy chairman of the PS; Shaqir Vukaj, vice president of Parliament; Namik Dokle; Luan Hajdaraga, deputy chairmen of the PS; Sabit Brokaj, Ibrahim Baçi, Bardhyl Agasi, Moikom Zeqo, Miri Hoti, MPs of the PS; and Arta Dade, member of the PS presidency, addressed Albanians yesterday to seek their electoral support against Berisha's ruling party, overwhelmed by panic. Durrës responded first. Thousands of residents of Durrës, in an overcrowded sports hall, welcomed the Socialist leadership under the slogan for the Socialist Party, for its imprisoned political chairman Fatos Nano and above all for a much-sought socialist victory in the elections. People’s enthusiasm is unending, while from the stairs of the ... (continued on page 6)

Interview with Prof. Dr. Ethem Ruka, member of the Presidency of the Socialist Party, member of the Albanian delegation at the 4th Session of the Council of Europe

Celebration in Lisbon Page 10

The Democratic Party, the party that is experiencing the winter of great loneliness, as we have already entered autumn, left without allies and without friends inside the country, is trying to invent them abroad. Among them there are personalities, among them there are also democrats. But this effort by the PD to present every person who comes to Albania as a great friend of Albanians, as its natural ally, as a measure of the democratic values installed in Albania, while pouring scorn over the entire three-year governance of the PD, resembles a crude fabrication of friends. These days a survey is supposedly being conducted among the youth of the capital on who Gert Langguth is. The answers were among the strangest: someone made him a footballer, another heard that a third person said he was a Danish politician, a fourth a drug trafficker, and only two out of 70 respondents found that he was a foundation director from Germany, a friend. This fact expresses a truth that forms part of the ugly polarization in our society, that is, even young people, people are thinking about other things, essentially tired of their daily life. They care little about who arrives and who leaves from Rinas airport. They are not interested in whether some Langguth made some statements against the Socialist Party. This person may be very respected in his own country. He may make other statements and we will not resent him for what he says, but we do feel a little regret that those who know the Albanian reality sink into it. We are convinced that with this friendly and democratic spirit, little and suffering Albania will understand this simple truth. So, here people, simply because he stood by Berisha and by the PD, RD did not spare itself from describing him as a friend of the Albanian nation. You remember the friends of Albania, but we do not think this is the way to realize this noble objective, which for us means Albania's great opening to the world and its vital interests in moving in step with the most developed countries. The tactics of manufacturing friends, after a handshake or a smile, after a standing meeting or a statement, which the PD shows it is very interested in, express the political amateurism of its leaders, and also express their identity crisis. With such haste and amateurism they also manufacture enemies, even from the ranks of close friends, when they do not align with the interests of the day. Thus today the PD sees itself surrounded only by enemies and then anathematizes the opposition as if it were against Europe, against the USA, against NATO, against integration, against the West, against everything. This was the function assigned to itself by the latest statement of the PD spokesman, which, being unable to answer the question: do they believe in the most important institutional competition in the world, the international certainty that democracy in Albania will not turn back?, builds scenarios with communist bogeymen to strike the opposition and especially the Socialist Party. Such games have long since run out of time. The PD does not know how to build clear positions, and therefore falls into the vortex of fabricated friends and enemies. Strangely, it has enemies inside the country and friends outside. This path that it has consciously chosen can lead nowhere other than to failure.

The PS will win by a landslide PS - 53.4% PD - 12.4% -77 percent of those surveyed do not trust the government and 72.4 percent of those surveyed do not trust the President. With its positions it serves the unity of the people and the development of democracy. During the month of September 1995, the Sociology Department of the Socialist Party organized a survey among residents of the city of Tirana on people's trust in political institutions in Albania. 44.4 percent of those surveyed are in the 18-35 age group, 34.8 percent are in the 36-55 age group and 20.7 percent are over 56. 79.2 percent of those surveyed are in the 18-55 age group, 61 percent of those surveyed are men and 39 percent women. Page 3