Albania: A Setback for The Old Guard

A Setback for The Old Guard

Despite their landslide victory in Albania's first free elections last spring, the old communist rulers have had trouble holding on to power as the wave of reform sweeps over Europe's poorest and most isolated country. Reincarnated as the Socialist Party, they were forced by a rash of strikes to enter into a coalition with the opposition Democratic Party in June. Last week Democratic leader Sali Berisha charged his governing partners with "attempting to create a neodictatorship" and pulled his seven ministers out of the 21-member Cabinet.

In a further sign of communist disarray, the widow of Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist who...

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