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- <text id=91TT2768>
- <title>
- Dec. 16, 1991: World Notes:Albania
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Dec. 16, 1991 The Smile of Freedom
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 53
- World Notes
- ALBANIA
- A Setback for The Old Guard
- </hdr><body>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
- <p> In a further sign of communist disarray, the widow of
- Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist who founded and presided over the
- original dictatorship for 41 years, was arrested on charges of
- corruption. Although bringing to book Nexhmije Hoxha, a powerful
- figure in her own right, was high on the opposition's agenda,
- the arrest came too late to keep the government together as the
- Democrats demanded that elections be held as early as next
- month. Given the social unrest exacerbated by drastic economic
- reforms, the Democrats are confident that this time they will
- oust the communists once and for all.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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