26.10.99Albanian Prime Minister resigned
 
  26.10.99Government Member Resigns after Losing Party Leadership Bid

Albanian Prime Minister hands in resignation
Reuters 26.10.99

TIRANA - Prime Minister Pandeli Majko formally resigned Tuesday after a year in government, complaining that political squabbling had prevented him from tackling Albania's many problems. President Rexhep Meidani accepted the resignation and asked the ruling Socialist Party to nominate a new prime minister, widely expected to be Deputy Premier Ilir Meta. "I submitted my resignation to the president. It was a difficult decision fraught with dilemmas that left no space for personal arguments," Majko told reporters. "But it was an effort to solve the problem, rather than be a part of it," he added in reference to internal party power struggles. Albania has been plagued by incessant political squabbling since the isolationist Stalinist government was swept away in 1990, and little progress has been made in dealing with its substantial economic and security problems. Majko became Europe's youngest premier when he took office on Oct. 2, 1998, at the age of 30. He announced Monday he would bow out after losing the leadership of the Socialist Party to former Prime Minister Fatos Nano earlier this month. Relations between Nano and his erstwhile protege soured when Majko met former President Sali Berisha to discuss the Kosovo crisis. Nano spent four years in prison under Berisha on what he insists were trumped up charges. Majko's defeat by Nano for the party leadership confirmed the dominance of the old guard in both major parties after the opposition Democrats recently reelected Berisha as leader. Nano and Berisha dominated Albanian politics during the turbulent 1990s, which saw periodic outbursts of political violence following the collapse of the communist regime. "In the overblown proportions of this crisis, the problem was not so much the old names in government but the old mentality of conflict and exclusion which continues to be the leitmotiv of Albanian politics," Majko said. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the stability of Europe's poorest country and a continuation of governance was of utmost importance rather than who will head the next government. "We are interested in stability in Albania, so the next government should have as its priority the fight against crime and corruption," said Giovanni Porta, OSCE spokesman in Albania. Majko won respect abroad for his handling of the Kosovo crisis, when Albania took in some half a million refugees from Kosovo, but he was criticized at home for failing to combat widespread corruption and smuggling. Nano said Majko had acted responsibly and in the interest of the country by resigning and indicated that there might be a seat for Majko in the new cabinet. "We cannot afford to lose Majko and the values his cabinet created," Nano said.
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Government Member Resigns after Losing Party Leadership Bid
26.10.99

TIRANA  - A junior member of the cabinet of Socialist Prime Minister Pandeli Majko offered his resignation on Sunday after losing a bid to be elected to the Socialist Party’s (SP) top leadership.
"I resign considering what happened after the SP Congress," the State Secretary for Euro-Atlantic Integration, Maqo Lakrori, told official television after handing in his resignation to the prime minister. Lakrori is the first government member to resign following a reshuffling of the ruling SP leadership on Saturday and the party congress last week. He urged other government ministers who failed to be elected to the party’s 17-member chairmanship to follow suit. "I appeal to those that were not voted in to the SP chairmanship posts to follow my example," he said. Only three government ministers, besides Majko, made it to the new chairmanship, including the Ministers of Public Order, Spartak Poci, Economic Cooperation, Ermelinda Meksi and Education, Et’hem Ruka. But the prime minister has rejected the resignation of Lakrori, saying that the new party leadership that has emerged from the party congress earlier this month would make an examination of the government performance a top priority in the agenda.
"He brought to me a resignation request and to tell the truth, I tore it up," Majko told a private local television interview on Sunday evening just minutes before Lakrori appeared on TV to confirm his resignation. "I thought he had to reflect on this decision because not only is Lakrori but other cabinet members are going through difficult moments," said Majko, who himself is under growing pressure to resign after being defeated in a very close race for the top party post in the congress, won by veteran party leader Fatos Nano. However, an imminent government crisis has been postponed for the moment as the Socialist rivals have struck a compromise in deciding on the steering committee. It appears that the committee, confirmed unchanged last Friday in a controversial congress session called by the party leader, despite objections by premier Majko and his supporters, represents an even balance of powers between Nano’s and Majko’s supporters, which the congress vote confirmed. The important posts of party secretaries are shared between those supporters: deputy-speaker Namik Dokle is new Secretary-General, narrowly defeating Nano’s ally, Arben Malaj, while senior MP, Arta Dade, retains her post as foreign relations secretary, and two of Nano’s allies, Petro Koci and Luan Rama, were elected as secretaries of organisation and public relations, respectively. Majko, who had promised to resign before the congress and then refused to go citing the very narrow defeat in the leadership contest, was more at ease on Sunday, saying he was going to ask for a vote of confidence in the party for the government he leads. But he did not speak of resigning any time soon.
"After the election of the party structures the time has now come to discuss the government issue," he told a talk-show with journalist Blendi Fevziu on local Tirana channel Klan. "After a not-very normal debate before the congress the time has come to discuss the problem of governing the country," he added, without excluding any alternative, including his own resignation. "When I say we are open to all alternatives, I do not exclude myself," he said in response to a question on whether a government reshuffle by the Socialists would include even his resignation. Majko said he was ready to work with his rival Nano inside the party, despite his grudge over what he called "unprincipled and immoral personal attacks" made against him by his rival during the campaign. Majko said he was not prepared to face such a harsh and fierce campaign against him. "The campaign of the other candidate exceeded all limits and I was not prepared to face it in terms of human relations. "Links were alleged with the mafia, of drinking champagne on the evening of September 14 and of establishing pyramid schemes," he said, without mentioning Nano, the prime minister on Sept. 14 when angry opposition mobs stormed his office during the funeral of a slain opposition MP, by name. "Now things will start in another way, and the SP should turn to the issue of government."

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