The Albanian Socialist Party

[Philosophos]

So I've read that the ASP used to be the communist party ruling Albania until 1991 and now it has turned to social-democracy.
Can any albanian here or at least someone that knows anything about the current state of the party tell me if it's at least a good change for the albanians or not?

[Ismail]

Bourgeois media note how the platforms of the Democrats and Socialists are pretty much the same. The Socialists run campaigns based around the corruption of the Democrats. In 1997 when many people took up arms against the government (which was in the hands of the DP) the Socialists took advantage of this in order to come to power and preach reformism.

It's a capitalist party. The first Socialist Party government in 1991 was headed by Fatos Nano, who declared: "I'm not a Stalinist, I'm not a Maoist, I'm not a Pol Potist. I'm a true Albanian interested in the integration of Albania in Europe." There actually was a "hardline" faction which allowed the party statues to mention Marxism-Leninism as late as 1996, but that was just words.

Ramiz Alia, who presided over capitalist restoration and the founding of the Socialist Party, said the following in a 1992 interview with The New York Times:

But Mr. Alia pointed out that he eventually ordered the removal of images of Stalin and Lenin from Tirana. "Life is not devotion to a person," he said. "Life is devotion to an ideal."http://nytimes.perfectmarket.com/pm/images/pixel.gif
http://nytimes.perfectmarket.com/pm/images/pixel.gif

http://nytimes.perfectmarket.com/pm/images/pixel.gif
Mr. Alia was particularly critical of political interference with the workings of market economics. "The economy cannot be guided by the ideological concept of political parties," he said. "Politics may leave one with an empty belly."

During the hard-line Communist years, the Governments headed by Mr. Hoxha and Mr. Alia promulgated a Constitution that outlawed foreign investment, acceptance of foreign credits and joint ventures with foreign companies.

Mr. Alia declined to acknowledge any contradictions between his former and present views.

"There is no other alternative but a free-market economy," the President said. "Undoubtedly I have my own ideals, but I'm a realist."In his memoirs published in 2010 he did write that he wasn't fond of the economic route Albania had taken since 1991, but his solution remained "regulated" capitalism, the aim of all modern-day social-democratic parties.

[Philosophos]

So basically is just another badly covered left of capital party right?

[Ismail]

So basically is just another badly covered left of capital party right?Yes, in fact it's probably to the right of Greece's PASOK.

[Philosophos]

Yes, in fact it's probably to the right of Greece's PASOK.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol: So bad?

[Ismail]

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: :lol::lol: So bad?Worse than a billion Hitlers.

... I mean yeah it's a social-democratic party, it sucks and the proletariat should have its own independent political force in Albania as elsewhere in the world.

[Paul Pott]

The best comparison would probably be that glorious "socialist" Hollande who is president of France.