Nano, prime minister on the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment
The People’s Assembly grants a vote of confidence to the program and composition of the new Government
“I invite you all to build and guarantee our European future together, in keeping with our national dignity”
Prime Minister Nano signing for the deputies of the People’s Assembly, after receiving the vote of confidence. (Photo: ROJTER)
A folly that must be forgotten
1993 - 30 July - 1997
Four years ago, precisely on 30 July 1993, Berisha’s pernicious regime, by unjustly and unlawfully imprisoning the socialist leader Fatos Nano, was warning Albanians that their dream of democracy, most meaningfully expressed in the call “We want Albania like Europe!”, would meet the same fate. Berisha’s folly thus aimed to eliminate the opposition, get rid of political opponents, and imprison an entire people.
But popular consciousness, which saw in Fatos Nano’s imprisonment not merely the unlawful seizure of one citizen’s freedom, but the beginning of the seizure of the freedom of an entire people, erupted in revolt—a revolt that would not subside for nearly four years, undeterred by prisons and rubber truncheons, by the violence of a gangster government, or by the various accusations fabricated to divide Albanians and turn them against one another.
Neither imprisonment, nor threats, nor anything else succeeded in bringing Berisha’s regime’s political prisoner, Fatos Nano, to his knees. Through his resistance he became a symbol of the struggle for democracy, which, thanks to the nationwide uprising from the south to the north of Albania, at last feels genuinely [unclear: “unchained”], the shared possession of all Albanians.
Despite the old regime’s efforts, the majority of Albanians—united with Fatos Nano not only by shared suffering but also by the same aspiration for a normal Albania—decided once and for all, with their plebiscitary vote of 29 June, that there would never again be a 30 July like that of 1993, nor a 26 or 28 May like those of 1996.
Today marks four years since Fatos Nano’s political imprisonment. It was all a folly that must be forgotten. It was all a folly that must be forgotten. Should we keep everything, the good and the bad? [partly unclear]
Yesterday, with an absolute majority of votes, the People’s Assembly gave its vote of confidence to the new democratic government, with Mr Fatos Nano as prime minister. The New Politics of Coexistence and Joint Government, inaugurated by a man who four years ago was unjustly planted in the prison cells of Berisha’s regime, opens the era of Albania’s European reconstruction. Therefore, precisely today, as a full four years have passed since 30 July 1993, Prime Minister Fatos Nano addresses all Albanians: “I invite you all to build and guarantee our European future together, in keeping with our national dignity.”
Luan M. Rama
