Nano says he is the best presidential candidate to work with Berisha

TIRANA, May 16 – Former opposition Socialist leader and Prime Minister Fatos Nano repeated that he was the best candidate for the post of the next president and that he was also the right person to know how to work with the opposing Prime Minister Sali Berisha of the Democratic Party.
In an interview with the BBC, Nano highly evaluated himself, his calmness and maturity and his experience saying that he knew how to take Albania and the reforms ahead in the road of integration into the European Union.
“I may affirm with calmness and maturity that those, called in the common language as consequences, may be turned into lessons and they are part of my experience,” he said.
What has been surprising in all political circles in the last months is the close relations that Nano and his ever-opponent Berisha, or the Siamese brothers as they are often called, are showing toward each other.
“I believe that the two protagonists of the development of the Albanian politics and society during pluralism in the last 15-16 years are also architects of the construction of relations, agreements, consensus for all this period who have brought about important transformation of the legislation, big reforms, the country’s stable economic growth,” he said, adding that excluding the extremists of both sides, he and Berisha have also brought about peaceful rotation and alternation in the government.
He virtually claimed that every good thing happening in this tiny Balkan country, still one of Europe’s poorest and very likely the last in the integration processes in the region and beyond, were the work of his and Berisha’s hands.
Nano further continued attacking the leader of his party, Edi Rama, saying that his re-election in the post last weekend with the new way of voting by including all the party members was, “in fact a turn back.”
That statement may be seen as a threat to Rama that unless supports Nano to be elected as the new president Rama may also suffer from the lack of support from a group of a dozen or so lawmakers who have declared themselves in favor of Nano’s candidacy.
The next president is to be elected by the 140-seat parliament next month. Besides Nano declaring himself as a candidate, the Democratic party has chosen its senior leader Bamir Topi while their ally, the Republic Party, has chosen their chairman Sabri Godo.
The next president will be elected with a three-fifths vote in the parliament and if the parliament fails to elect him/her in five rounds then the country must move to new elections.