The financial markets firmly expect a rise in the cost of borrowing, which would be passed on to most mortgages, at the meeting straight after the election between the Governor and whoever is then Chancellor.”Interest rates will go up on 7 May. Keeping to the strict economic criteria was more important than meeting the Emu deadline, he told the Bild newspaper, adding: “There won’t be any soft Euro with me.”Mr Waigel’s comments revived doubts about whether the deadline can be met, boosting the mark against the Spanish peseta and the Italian lira.Comments from Karl Diller, budget spokesman for Germany’s opposition Social Democrats, who said Germany would not meet the deadline because its spending was “out of control”, produced further speculation.But the finance ministers in Brussels were undeterred by evidence of continuing volatility.The plans for further deep cuts in German public spending would enable Bonn to achieve its target of a 2.9 per cent deficit, the ministers insisted.The news of Germany’s growing debt failed to dent the confidence of the Finance Ministers. Undeterred by speculation about delay, ministers said the programmes of cuts presented yesterday by Bonn and Paris provided “all the necessary reassurance” that these two key economies would meet the Maastricht rules.
Germany’s record unemployment of almost 4.8 million, has spurred predictions that Bonn will fail to bring its budget deficit under the 3 per cent ceiling set by Maastricht.As he headed for the Brussels meeting, Theo Waigel, the German Finance Minister, assured Germans that the Euro would be as stable as the mark. In a display of determination to meet the single currency deadline, European Union finance ministers yesterday backed new German and French economic programmes, saying both countries would be in line for membership by 1999. It’s full,” yelled one gangster, underlining his call with a burst of fire.

The police arrived and dispersed the crowd by firing in the air, causing a ripple of panic “Go away,” cried a policeman. “There’s no ship now.”But it quickly became clear that this restoration of order was purely for show; police and gangsters were colluding in the lucrative exercise, and as the police wandered away the show resumed “There are enough people, so there is no more room. The gangsters ripped off their masks and stowed their guns in the beached boat. He did not have a ticket.The rate of fire increased and the crowd, gathered around an old boat run aground beside the pier, scattered. The Italian marines were dispatched to keep order on the boat, as the 800 refugees crammed aboard quarrelled in their desperation to reach foreign land.”After a week there won’t be anything left, no food. Women wept and children cried as the gangsters fired round after round in the air, some only inches above the crowd.

Those who had handed over around $250 for a ticket queued at the water’s edge as the gunmen called families forward. Then, Mr Berisha’s Democratic Party swept the parliamentary elections and he was duly elected leader by his MPs; he has now promised to resign if the Socialists win the next round. Mr Nano’s great advantage is that, because of his stint in prison, he is untainted by connection with the pyramid schemes that have swallowed the life-savings of so many Albanians.In the port city of Durres, hundreds of Albanians yesterday flocked to a beach pier in the hope of a boat-ride out.Masked gangsters brandished AK-47s at a small stone pier on a beach south of Durres, where hundreds of Albanians gathered in the hope of catching a boat out. The domestic political parties could act as “peace-making and peace- keeping missionaries”, and Mr Berisha should “co-operate, not interfere”.Mr Nano, who was freed last week when the capital collapsed into chaos and its jails were emptied, stands a good chance of replacing Mr Berisha if the elections due in May are free of the fraud that marred last year’s poll. Albania, Mr Nano said, perhaps following a cue from Western ambassadors eager to avoid dispatching a military force, had no need of UN peace-keepers.