Former Albanian Prime Minister and historical leader of the Albanian left, Fatos Nano, died on Friday at the age of 73. the Acting Prime Minister of Tirana, Edi Rama, announced on social networks. TASR informs according to the report of the AFP agency. Nano died in a hospital in the Albanian capital after several days in a coma, in which he fell due to respiratory complications, the doctors announced.
The three-time Albanian ex-prime minister, generally considered a liberal reformer, promoted the institutional modernization of Albania and the country’s transition to a market economy, writes AFP. At the same time, however, he came under sharp criticism from the European Union for his government’s failure to root out corruption and organized crime, and he himself was convicted of misappropriating foreign aid.
Nano was born in Tirana in 1952 as the son of the former director of the Albanian state television. He began his professional career in 1978 as an economic expert at the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies during the rule of communist dictator Enver Hodža in Albania.
Na univerzite v Tirane he also worked as a professor of economics. He was prime minister from March to May 1990 in the transitional government of the last communist president of Albania, Ramiz Ali. In 1992, Nano was elected president of the Socialist Party, the successor to the Albanian communist Labor Party. In 1994, he was convicted of embezzling six million euros from Italian aid and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Nano consistently insisted on his innocence and described himself as a political prisoner, adds AFP.
During the nationwide riots of 1997 following the collapse of get-rich-quick pyramid schemes that bankrupted thousands of Albanians, Nano escaped from prison. Later, then-president Sali Berisha granted him amnesty. Nano became prime minister for the second time in June 1997 and served until October 1998, when he resigned amid renewed political unrest. He served his third and last term as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2005. The Socialists subsequently lost the parliamentary elections and Nano withdrew from politics and handed over power to Berisha. He was replaced at the head of the Socialist Party by Edi Rama, the current Albanian Prime Minister.
