“Liberal: a power worshipper without power.”- G. Orwell

November 1st, All Saints’ Day, dawned with a profound sorrow for Albanian politics. The first socialist patriarch to bless the nation’s inaugural pluralist elections, who guided the state through the fragile, infantile, and unconscious years of democracy, Fatos Nano, has passed away, following a long and imposed political silence. Yet, his political legitimacy will undoubtedly endure as a monumental memento for generations of young Albanians aspiring toward a liberal and reformist political culture.

As is customary when a prominent political figure departs this life, the press hastens to compile a brief summary of their biography and public career. For such information, the reader may easily consult the Albanian media portals and press archives. Here, however, lies a brief eulogy to the man who undertook to lead his country through a political tempest in the wake of the Berlin Wall’s fall and the lifting of the Iron Curtain that had long shadowed communist dictatorships.