Erion Braçe Yesterday, the “Friends of Albania” statement prompted a host of reactions, many of them strange. Some ministers began plucking flower petals, just as if they were children: “Will they remove me, will they not.” Opposite them, people who had been mired in wrongdoing in recent years, particularly in customs and the stock market, and who belong to Sali Berisha’s circle, plucked the same petals, but with different words: “Will I become a minister, will I not.” Faced with these two extremes, very few opinions were heard about what needs to be done. Not for elections, not for grabbing chairs, but for Albanians. Reading a statement is easy; using it for propaganda is, naturally, something plenty of former communists from Hoxha’s inner circle know how to do very well. But to accept its criticisms, to ...

The Albanian prime minister meets face-to-face with the president of Montenegro PAGE 9

Meta, Bufi, Fasino, Bersani: On 30 July, concrete assistance to help Albania in Sarajevo PAGE 7

Minister Musa Ulqini speaks; the others could not be found or did not want to speak What needed for propaganda is how to do very well. But accepting its criticisms, understanding its recommendations and urgently setting out to implement them are in the country’s interest. This is neither an alibi nor a counter-alibi that invalidates the first. The Friends of Albania have openly stressed in their conclusions that they are ready to help this government achieve the objectives it has shown it has adopted. So everything is in the hands of the Albanians. It is absolutely essential that the Albanian government urgently draw up an emergency plan, particularly in the areas of public order, corruption, justice, privatization and programs that will attract donor funds. This requires a different pace of work. It requires great commitment and many sacrifices, beginning with the prime minister and then the entire administration. Much greater sincerity and transparency are needed. Above all, everyone in government must become more accountable—especially by accepting criticism and working to change this reality, whether dead or alive, which is “a little less than satisfactory”; in other words, to change everything. At least in the five areas most criticized by the “Friends of Albania.” Yesterday, with the exception of the Minister of Information, none of the other ministers agreed to respond to the concerns raised in the Friends’ statement. This was for the most banal reason in this country, where idealism is in much shorter supply than chairs: “If they were here, they would be identified as responsible for the problems raised. And if they were identified as responsible, they would have to leave the government.” How far removed was their responsiveness from the concern that had been raised? So far that they offer no hope of putting things right, let alone turning everything around for the good of this country.

On Monday, 26 July 1999, at 10:00, a meeting of the General Steering Committee of the PSSh will be held in one of the halls of the Palace of Congresses. It will discuss the draft points of the report to the Party’s 3rd Congress. The Presidium of the PSSh