Prime Minister Edi Rama, during his farewell speech for former Prime Minister Fatos Nano, said that when he first heard the news of Nano’s illness, he never imagined he would one day see him in a coffin.

He looked back in time, recalling how they had shared bread together and how he himself had been “adopted” by the Socialist Party. At the end of his remarks, Rama said that he was not saying goodbye, but rather, “May you never die, Fatos Nano.”

“Dear Fatos,

I will miss those rare friendly dinners, our communication like that between the first shift’s driver and the second shift’s driver of the same car — where we understood each other without words, and when we faced some strategic dilemma, your advice always came clear and refined, helping me greatly to put the dot over the ‘i’.

And when I think about what kind of four-wheeled Soviet vehicle you took over on your first shift, and what a much better car I received from you on the second, to turn the Socialist Party into the speed brand for a European Albania that it is today — it comes to me quite naturally not to say farewell, but simply: may you never die, Fatos Nano,” Rama said.