Departure of Fatos Nano

AIM Tirana, 5 February, 1999

After long absence from the public for reasons of health, former prime minister of Albania, Fatos Nano, informed the journalists about his resignation from the post of president of Socialist Party. However, Nano was not forced to withdraw from the post in the party for reasons of health just four months after his resignation from the post of the prime minister. In his long speech, Fatos Nano attacked in sharp vocabulary the leadership of the Socialist Party and his associates causing in this way commotion in the party and questioning the survival of the coalition in power.

Nano's vocabulary was at the same time elegant and brutal. Nano accused his associates of having played the role of Pontius Pilate, and sounded the alarm by saying that Socialist Party was at a "dangerous crossroads". Nano accused of "abuse of power", "party militancy with economic objectives", "folklorist nationalism", "vengeful populism". The sharp tone of his speeches affected not only the Socialist Party but dumbfounded even Nano's political opponents from the ranks of the opposition.

Nano demanded scheduling of an emergency convention of the party in March, and then left the hall. He made it clear in his speech that he would address the membership in order to find ways out of the deadend street in which it was.

"I have decided to withdraw from the existing political environment in order not to be morally and ideologically blemished, and not because my political philosophy of changes and the project of European rule of Albania have failed", said Nano.

Quite unexpectedly, the Socialists were left without their leader, the most popular figure of the Albanian left who had eight years ago undertaken the task of leading it down the tedious road of reform. Former Albanian communists needed a reformer and that was Fatos Nano, liberal economist, polyglot, who was well acquainted with modern economic theory. Former Albanian communists also needed a hero and Fatos Nano suddenly became that hero after his arrest with clear motive of political revenge by former president Berisha. Nno's release from jail became an existential issue for the Socialists, and for Berisha it turned into a "hot potato" and later into a boomerang.

Released from jail during the revolt against Berisha's regime in March 1997, Fatos Nano was pardoned by the president's decree and again took the lead of his party. After June 1997 elections, he for the third time returned to the post of the prime minister, having become the head of the coalition of left centre.

When he had come to power, it seemed that former prime minister decided to do the opposite of what his political rival, former authoritarian president Berisha, used to do. His liberal style of rule, elegant political vocabulary, his comprehensive philosophy, soon turned Nano into a very popular figure.

However, not long after the Albanians became aware of the fact that although style and vocabulary had changed, their everyday life was still tedious. There was anarchy on the roads of Albania, there were weapons to be found everywhere, crime was not stopped, and corruption increased at a galloping rate. And while Berisha's regime had in fact been a union of the president's office with secret police, Nano's regime was a union of the prime minister's office with the customs administration.

Having found himself in the midst between aggressive opposition which refused to settle down and accept its loss of power and increasing criticism within the ruling coalition and his own party, Nano has chosen the road to isolation and indifference. While he was prime minister he travelled more outside Albania than inside his country. For a long time, although president of his, Socialist Party, he did not set his foot in its seat causing much discontent in this way.

Persisting anarchy and especially great corruption even inside the government headed by Nano caused the first displeasure with former liberal prime minister in the West. His connections with the so-called Marxist faction of the Liberation Army of Kosovo in Switzerland, but especially the fact that he permitted armament trade for Kosovo pass over the territory of Albania in spring 1998 increased discontent with Nano. Be what may, it would be wrong to say that the West could have demanded Nano's departure from the post while Berisha was on the other side, whose democratic credintials were very unconvincing.

However, history is very ironic sometimes. After opposition deputy Azem Hajdari had been murdered in September last year, Berisha's followers took over control of main institutions of the state for a few hours. In the evening of 14 September, when this armed revolt had already failed, the government appeared in front of state TV cameras but without its prime minister. Where was the prime minister? Nobody has yet given the answer to this question, but foul tongues say that he had run away to Macedonia at the time. In any case Nano had disappeared, he was absent for almost 48 hours, losing face in the eyes of his followers and the international community.

Not at all by accident, the day after Nano had resigned at the post of the head of the party, that is, a week ago, the newspaper of the Socialist Party, Zeri i Popullit, with a critical article about the former prime minister, carried a photo of former Chilean president Alende with a rifle in his hand defending the presidential palace in Santiago in September 1973. This was a clear allusion to Nano's abandoning the office of the prime minister on 14 September, 1998.

And when voices grew louder demanding Berisha's departure from politics or both Berisha's and Nano's (sometimes called even the "couple of hatred"), Nano resigned and made room for 31-year old Pandel Majko, known as Nano's supporter. While Nano was in Greece, on medical treatment of a still unknown illness, Majko and his government started increasingly criticising those who had ruled before them.

The first and the last split are linked to Kosovo. One of the actions that cost former prime minister dearly was his meeting with Slkobodan Milosevic in Crete. The meeting was received with reservations in Kosovo and sharply criticised by the opposition in Tirana. However, according to well informed sources, the USA were not happy about the meeting either. Having taken over the post of the prime minister, Majko also openly criticised the meeting in Crete and even went a step further. Official Tirana started gradually adopting an independent stand concerning Kosovo. Majko even used Kosovo to re-open the dialogue with the opposition. Nano undoubtedly did not like the sight of Majko shaking Berisha's hand, and he did not hesitate to call opening of the dialogue a false spectacle.

The questions which arise after Nano's resignation are the following: What will be the consequences of this act for the Socialist Party? What is Nano's political future?

In fact, Fatos Nano is the only Albanian politician who has shown that he is capable of leaving when things get difficult for him. In the past eight years, regardless of the fact that he had spent half of that period in jail, he was prime minister of Albania four times.

Nano will try to take over leadership of the party again at the early convention, since he hopes he still enjoys support of the party membership. In some of the cities, Nano's followers have already asked for return of the president. This means that it will not be easy at the convention. However, Nano who has shown that he does not have the will to carry out his ambitions could hardly travel throughout Albania and cause rebellion in the party.

He stands a better chance in case of a possible split in the Socialist parliamentary group in which Nano has quite a few followers. If he manages to win support of the majority, it would mean that the government was losing its stronghold and then early elections would be inevitable.

The last possibility would be creation of a new party by Nano or its union with Social Democrats. However, small chances are that this will happen because experience has shown that all attempts with creation of new parties have failed both because of difficulties with establishment of a new structure of membership, and because of shortage of money. Perhaps Social Democrats would profit quite a lot from a figure such as Nano, but it seems that they are not ready to offer him the post of the president of the party.

Nano's failure can also be observed as a failure of liberalism. But, maybe even more than that, Nano's failure can be considered to be an expression of an internal crisis of the Socialist Party and of faction struggle within it. Nano's departure has raised the question of the future leader of the Socialists. Prime minister Majko and deputy prime minister Meta are considered to be possible candidates. But, more than associates, they are known as rivals, which means that the period until the convention could be a period of struggle and a new split among the Socialists.

Nano's departure seems to have made return back to power easier for former president Berisha who believed Nano was his greatest rival. But, there is a possibility that Nano's departure will affect something quite the opposite: that it will increase pressure on Berisha himself to depart. In any case, the game remains open to all possibilities.

AIM Tirana

Remzi LANI