Fatos Nano obituary

"Whether he was in government or in jail, Fatos Nano was one of the two figures, along with his arch-rival, Sali Berisha, who dominated Albania's political scene in the turbulent 15 years that began with the disintegration of Communist party rule in 1990. It was characteristic of the political turmoil of this period that, although he was appointed prime minister on four separate occasions, Nano served for only a total of four years in that post."

"Nano, who has died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease aged 73, owed his political influence to his unchallenged position as the leader of the Socialist party of Albania (SPA) until 2005. As prime minister in 1991, Nano was instrumental in steering when that was possible Albania's chaotic, but largely peaceful, transition from a hardline Stalinist regime with a collapsed command economy to a pluralist society and a fledgling market economy."

"The initial political beneficiary of that transformation was the opposition, led by Berisha's Democratic Party of Albania (DPA), which won a landslide victory in the first genuinely free elections in March 1992. Berisha was elected president by the new parliament. Nano, who in 1991 had already started to turn the communist-era Party of Labour of Albania (PLA) into the social democratic SPA, soon found himself in prison, following his conviction on charges of corruption."

Fatos Nano dominated Albanian politics alongside Sali Berisha during the turbulent 15 years after Communist rule ended in 1990. He served as prime minister four times but totaled only four years in office. Nano led the transformation of the communist-era Party of Labour into the Socialist Party of Albania and maintained unchallenged leadership until 2005. He guided Albania's largely peaceful early transition toward pluralism and a market economy in 1991. After a corruption conviction he was imprisoned. He returned amid the 1997 uprising caused by collapsed pyramid schemes, regained the premiership in snap elections, and shifted power away from Berisha.

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