The prompt concession by President Sali Berishathat his Democratic Party had lost the election to a Socialist-led coalition bodes well for Albania's future as a European democracy. That the election has gone so smoothly must be counted a success for the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, which oversaw it. The next step in this process should be a peaceful handing over of power; but other measures need to be taken to ensure that Europe's most impoverished country gets the opportunity to move towards peace and relative prosperity.
This century has been marked for most of Europe by wars, terror and atrocities committed in the name of ideologies of the left and the right. For Albania it has been a more harrowing epoch than for most states on the continent. In Germany the Nazi terror ended with defeat in 1945, in Russia the dreadful excesses of Stalin were modified after his death by the arrival of Khrushchev. The crushing of uprisings in Hungary and Czechoslovakia were followed by gradual reforms and even Yugoslavia enjoyed a relatively prosperous and stable period until it was torn asunder in the past decade.
In Albania, however, the policies of Stalin were pursued by the country's dictator Enver Hoxha up to his death in 1985 and by his successor Ramiz Alia until 1990. The country was almost totally cut off from the outside world, vast and heavily-polluting industries were imported from China and, in a country roughly the size of Leinster, the paranoia attendant upon Hoxha's leadership caused the construction and dissemination of 700,000 concrete bunkers as a defence against enemies real and imaginary. Individual freedoms, except for those in Hoxha's inner circle, were kept to a minimum.
As other countries, notably the Czech republic, moved with considerable success and probity to the democratic system and a market economy, seriously flawed versions of both were installed in Albania. The collapse of fraudulent investment schemes which had tricked most citizens out of their very modest savings brought matters violently to a head in March and the new government now faces extremely difficult tasks which it cannot undertake successfully without outside assistance.
Even the arrival of a considerable amount of western aid would be ineffective without political and social stability. This may be difficult to achieve in a land in which the tradition of the personal vendetta is still all too strong and in which up to one million guns are now in the hands of the civilian population.
President Berisha and the Prime Minister Mr Bashkim Fino have, however, given cause for hope when speaking to this newspaper in pre-election interviews. Mr Berisha said he would stand down if his party were defeated and it is to be hoped that he will now do so. Mr Fino said he would be prepared to include members of Mr Berisha's Democratic Party in the new government. His party's overwhelming success in the poll may tempt him and his party leader Mr Fatos Nano to drop this idea. It is a temptation that, in the national interest, should be resisted.