Former president Ramiz Alia passed away

07/10/2011 00:00

Today passed away Ramiz Alia, aged 86, former General Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Labor Party of Albania, and the first President
of pluralist Albania.

Alia was receiving treatment at the Sanatorium Hospital, where he had gone several times for a lung disease.

Alia was born on 18 October 1925, in Shkoder. He joined the communist movement before turning 20. He became a member of the Partisan Army, and after Albania’s liberation he started his political career. After graduating in 1954 at the Party’s School, in Moscow, he was accepted at the Political Bureau of Albania’s Labor Party in 1961, becoming one of the most important figures during Enver Hoxha’s dictatorship.

During this time, Ramiz Alia held different positions, such as Minister of Culture, MP, Chairman of the Popular Parliament Presidium, First Secretary of the Communist Party and chairman of the Presidential Council, which he himself created in 1991. After the first pluralist elections, held on 31 March 1991, the new pluralist Parliament was dominated by the communist MPs, who elected him as the first President of the pluralist Albania on 30 April 1991.

After the early elections of 22 March 1992, won by the opposition coalition, led by the Democratic Party, Alia resigned from his duty on 1992 and retired from the political life. The Labor Party had started the reformation, turning into the Socialist Party, led by Fatos Nano.

For many people, Ramiz Alia’s role in the democratic developments has brought many controversies. After being in prison for power abuse during the ’90s, he benefited from the amnesty of 1997 and left Albania for one year. He returned in 1998 and led a calm retirement life, only by participating in several activities, as Albania’s first President.

Ilir Meta expresses condolences to family

The leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration, Ilir Meta, expressed his condolences to the family of the former President, Ramiz Alia.

“Ramiz Alia was an important figure of the anti-fascist war”, Meta writes in his condolences.

The leader of the Socialist Movement for Integration is the first politician who has expressed his condolences to the family.

FOTO GALERI

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