The Albanian public opinion has been widely troubled by the recent coming-back appearance of Enver Hoxha’s portraits and of communist symbols during numerous public memorial activities. Albania is today the sole former communist European country where two former high-level communist apparatchiks run simultaneously the Ministry of Interior (Fatmir Xhafaj) and the National Assembly (Mr. Gramoz Ruçi).
Communism victims and the wider public opinion are tremendously affected by the fact that former prosecutors and tormentors are being given – by the current Socialist government – appreciation medals instead of public disapprobation or legal condemnations. It is DP’s deepest belief that Albania needs today a new and updated public framework as of the handling the communist past and the wounds it has created among our fellow citizen.
In this context, the Democratic Party of Albania has created a working-group composed by MPs, legal experts, historians, representatives of communist’ victims associations etc. with the objective to draft a new legal framework regarding the prohibition of communist symbols and to produce a new public strategy and the corresponding legal amendments as of the condemnation of crimes committed during communism.
In this initiative, the Democratic Party has officially requested the support of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung office in Albania in order to identify best practices, particularly from Germany, as of the handling of such delicate issues relating to national memory.