Fatos Thanas Nano About this sound listen (helpinfo) (born September 16, 1952) is

an Albanian politician who was the Prime Minister of Albania several times; he
was the first leader and founder of the Socialist Party of Albania and a member
of the Albanian Parliament from 1991 to 1996 and 1997 to 2009. He reformed the A
nti-Revisionist Marxist-Leninist ideology of the Labor Party of Albania into soc
ial democracy for its successor, the Socialist Party.[1] During his leadership,
the Socialist Party, as a result of reforms, joined the Socialist International
and Party of European Socialists.[2][3] Nano was a candidate in the 2007 preside
ntial election but did not win. He again tried in the 2012 presidential election
,[4] but he did not even qualify as a candidate, because the leaders of parties
in Parliament obstructed their respective MPs to elect him as candidate in the e
lections.[5]
Personal history[edit]
Fatos Nano was born in Tirana to Thanas Nano, a former director of Albanian Radi
o Television,[6] and Maria Nano (ne Shuteriqi), a government official. He was the
only male child among female siblings in the family. He grew up in Hoxha Tahsim
Street in East Tirana, attended and graduated from Sami Frasheri High School, res
erved for the children of the nomenklatura.[7][8] In the early years of adolesce
nce, Nano was eager to learn foreign languages and used to play the guitar. In s
econd year of high school, he founded a rock group of which he was the lead sing
er that played the music of The Beatles, strictly forbidden to the general publi
c at the time.[9] He graduated in Political Economy from the University of Tiran
a in 1974.[10][11] After graduation in 1978, Nano worked in the management of th
e metallurgical mills of Elbasan until 1981.[12][13] From 1981 until 1984, Nano
served as an economist at Priska's Agricultural Farm in Tirana.[14] In 1984, he
was appointed as a researcher of socio-economic problems and reforms of market e
conomies of Eastern Bloc countries in the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies
in Tirana, where he worked until 1990.[15][16] When Fatos Nano was working in th
e Marxist-Leninist Institute, he was under the observation of Nexhmije Hoxha, En
ver Hoxha s wife. He was singled out for special favor. Nexhmije Hoxha reportedly
followed his career and helped him at strategic points to move from job to job.
Early political career[edit]
He began his political career in December 1990, where he was first appointed as
Secretary General of the Council of Ministers.[18][19] In January 1991, he was p
romoted to the position of Deputy Prime Minister, still in the government of Adi
l arani.[20][21] The fall of the communist regimes in various Central and Eastern
European countries forced President Ramiz Alia to gradually remove the old commu
nist nomenklatura from power and government, so in the end of February 1991, Ali
a appointed Nano as Prime Minister of the transitional government with the purpo
se of organizing the first post-communist democratic elections in the country be
ing held that year and to prepare the transition of the country towards liberal
democracy and market economy.[22][23][24] The Parliamentary Elections were held
on March 31, 1991 where Labour Party of Albania won the majority. Ramiz Alia app
ointed Nano for the second time as the new Prime Minister.[25] However, his new
government did not last longer than the first as one week after a General Strike
organized by the independent unions forced him to resign a couple of weeks late
r.[26][27][28] The 10th Congress of the Labor Party was held in June 1991, which
took three important decisions; first it changed the name of Labour Party to So
cialist Party, second expelled all the members of the Politburo, and third it el
ected Nano as the new leader of the Socialist Party on June 12, 1991.[29][30][31
]
Imprisonment[edit]
After the Democratic Party of Albania won the parliamentary election of March 22
, 1992, the Parliament set up a commission in early 1993 to investigate the acti
vity of Fatos Nano for alleged corruption and abuse with management of humanitar
ian aid given by the Italian state during the economic crisis that lasted from 1
990 until early 1992.[32] This was a sophisticated way to imprison Nano due to h
is strong opposition to the autocratic signs of President Sali Berisha and due t
o the inefficiency and inability of the government headed by Aleksander Meksi to
accomplish effective economic reforms.[33] Nano was right about this, because t

he government of the Democratic Party permitted the notorious Ponzi schemes (kno
wn as pyramid schemes in Albania) which resulted in the unrest of 1997 where the
majority of Albanians lost their savings, instead of effective economical refor
ms.[34] On July 27, 1993 the Albanian Parliament approved the request of the Gen
eral Attorney, Alush Dragoshi[35] to take off the legislative immunity for Nano.
[36] On July 30, 1993, Nano was arrested in the office of the Presecutor on char
ge for corruption and abuse in the management of humanitarian aid charges.[37] A
petition signed by 700 thousand people was sent to President Berisha to free Na
no from prison.[38] Nano was considered a political prisoner by the Socialist Pa
rty of Albania,[39] Amnesty International, Human Right Watch (former Helsinki Wa
tch), Inter-Parliamentary Union, and other groups,[40] so he was let to be the c
hairman of it. To do his job from the prison, he used his ex-wife, Rexhina Nano,
as intermediate to send directives to the party leadership, sometimes verbally,
sometimes in written form.[41] After imprisonment, Nano decided that the party
should be led by three Deputy Chairmen and one Secretary General to continue the
party's political battle.[42]
Since the rejection of the revised Albanian Constitution during the 1994 Referen
dum,[43] the foreign relations between Albania, the European Union and the Unite
d States began to deteriorate due to autocratic manners of President Berisha in
the matters of the state, but they also were sceptical about the abilities of th
e leadership of the Socialist Party to govern the country, in case the Socialist
Party were to win the Parliamentary Elections of 1996.[44] The foreign diplomat
s also expressed concern toward the neutral stance the Socialist leadership (exc
ept Nano) held about Enver Hoxha and the positive stance toward Marxism-Leninism
, which was implemented in the programme and the statute of the party by Servet
Pellumbi. They called the socialist leadership (except Nano, who was not affilia
ted with Labor Party) as "dinosaurs from the old epoch".[45][46]
In 1996, Nano wrote a letter the 2nd Congress of the Party (Keshilli i Pergjiths
hem Drejtues), held on July August 1996, to initiate a "Motion for Debate" to remo
ve from the top positions of party anyone who was affiliated in any way with the
Labour Party, because Nano thought that the top positions, i.e. the leadership
of the party, should be held by intellectuals, like Rexhep Meidani, Pandeli Majk
o, Kastriot Islami, etc.[47] This was an imperative because it was part of the o
ngoing process to reform the party in order to join the Socialist International
and the Party of European Socialists. The "Motion for Debate", requested by Nano
, also required, to implement the recommendations made by State Department, Euro
pean Parliament and European Council, for the solution of the political and inst
itutional crisis, as official stance of the Socialist Party, also to propose the
Congress to remove Marxist and etatist concepts from the party's statute and pr
ogramme,[48] also to deny Vladimir Lenin and Comintern and rehabilitate Karl Kau
tsky and Second Internationale.[49] The motion was supported by the majority of
the socialist members and also by the civil society, and was approved as a conse
quence by the congress.[50]
In 1997, the collapse of Ponzi schemes marked the beginning of an armed popular
revolt against President Berisha, who was forced to resign in July 1997.[51] Ber
isha called untimely parliamentary elections in June 29, and he decreed a genera
l amnesty to all prisoners in March 1997; Nano too was released from prison.[52]
Nano was found innocent by a court in Tirana for his alleged abuse of power and
corruption in 1999.[53]