After going to the elections in vain now, I find it hard to believe that Osmani would be the consensus candidate, because there is no consensus for her even within her party, let alone the other parties with which she was at war before and went into war in the last election campaign. Instead of offering an election program that would set it apart for an innovation from what we’ve been swallowing for years, it turned the entire outing into a personal issue rather than a matter of principle. And the result turned out to be what it is now (with little chance of change for the better)
I’m still crying over the money that went to Kosovo in the useless election processes (these last two parliamentary ones) as well as in the fat and absolutely unreasonable payments of the deputies who in one mandate did not do a single thing except to constitute and then dissolve themselves and who in the next mandate took more care to find assistants (so that they don’t get too tired), who also had to be paid (these, fortunately, only until the end of the mandate of the deputy).
And while I continue to mourn for all those millions that were distributed to buy votes, yesterday I found out about an epochal decision of the Hungarian Parliament: with a unanimous vote, the salaries of Hungarian deputies were reduced by 40%, while the prime minister reduced his salary by half, compared to what Orbani received. At the same time, the decision was also made to cut expenses for fuel, travel expenses and similar. The goal, according to what Magyari declares, is the attempt to reduce the huge income difference between public servants and the average salary, which is somewhere around 1800 euros.
In our country, what is happening especially in the last 18 months is the increase in the gap between salaries in the public sector and that of the private sector. And, the repetition of the usual: “the greatest economic growth in the region and we have never had better jobs in the economy”.
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Let’s go back to the topic that has already become commonplace: elections.
Last Sunday passed peacefully, without incident. We still don’t know if there was vote theft or not – I believe it will soon be confirmed by the counters at the National Election Commission, who this time are doing the counting faster than last time. This, apart from the fact that they have returned, also because the number of voters in the country compared to last time is 200,000 less.
An indication, if we assume that the voters are all residents, that people are tired and bored with repeated and completely unnecessary elections.
They are upset by the fact that politics in Kosovo continues to be a war of egos and that these June elections were fueled by the ambition of individuals who trusted their words: that the people love them very much and that they can’t wait to elect them to this or that position. As well as from the ambition of other individuals who have believed in the illusions that the return of a woman who has publicly declared that she would never return to the party from which she came, would bring to LDK the numbers that she had once won both when she was in the opposition within the party and when she joined the VV list.
In retrospect, Osmani appeared modestly on the political scene in 2010 when he won something under 10,000 votes; in 2014, she would have almost 40,000 votes (and the most voted woman); In 2017, she would reach her maximum with about 65,000 votes, which was a punishment vote for the LDK, as Osmani fell to the 81st place on the list – these votes were hers, really.
In 2019, she would be the bearer of the LDK list (and a candidate for prime minister and would be elected speaker of parliament) and there she would receive over 175 thousand votes, while in 2021 she would be part of the VV list, with no. 2, because Kurt was banned from participating in the elections for legal reasons and would have registered over 300,000 votes. Until December 2025, this had been the record. Kurti broke it, with 100,000 more votes.
Returned to the party from which she came, after she failed to convince anyone that she should be elected for a term as president of the state, and after she dissolved the Assembly in violation of the Constitution, she competed as the LDK’s list bearer, and until now, she still has not reached 80,000 votes.
So it turned out that her statement: “I think the will of the citizen is clear. In the vast majority of measurements, about 81% of the citizens want a second term for me”, was strongly denied on Sunday. The numbers suffered a permutation – less than 18% are those who support her statement. And yet, on the night of the elections, after declaring that “the first step of unification has yielded results”, he also said this: “The Vetëvendosje movement has no reason to reject my name for the seventh president of the Republic of Kosovo”, to continue a few days later on CNN saying that the voters have decided that the parties must reach a compromise, and that there is no place for a ‘one man show’.
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As the numbers are being calculated, it will turn out that the VV, together with the majority of the non-Serb minorities and Rashiq, will be able to elect the speaker of parliament and the prime minister together with the government. This is one compromise: offering the supporting parties ministerial and deputy ministerial positions – as always. The other would be to find a non-partisan candidate and push the process forward without fanfare or nonsense – a difficult task. As always.
Thus, the ball will fall in the opposition’s court. They would have to decide if they want to support any eventual candidate of the VV (so non-consensual) with the presence in the hall to ensure the quorum; if they will present Osmani as a candidate to compete with other candidates (which I don’t believe that Osmani would accept knowing that he would lose that race) or if they will decide to take us to elections again, risking not only the shrinking of the voters, but also of themselves to such an extent that the return would become extremely difficult.
After going to the elections in vain now, I find it hard to believe that Osmani would be the consensus candidate, because there is no consensus for her even within her party, let alone the other parties with which she was at war before and went into war in the last election campaign. Instead of offering an election program that would set him apart for an innovation from what we have been swallowing for years, he turned the entire field trip into a personal matter, rather than a matter of principle. And the result turned out to be what it is now (with little chance of change for the better).
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The crush I wrote about last week won’t go away easily. And especially it will not pass if knives will be “stuck” in the head of state’s chair again. The stubbornness of holding positions is doing us a lot, a lot of harm – because the politicians do not want to understand that Kosovo is much more important than their egos and pathological anger.
Kosovo is not interested in having a party with 60% of the votes and with indisputable power bordering on absolute, nor is it interested in continuing to function with a political system where there is no opposition – from the campaign we understood that the opposition has no vision of how to change the situation we are in, apart from copying ideas and accusations that resemble scratched gramophone records.
What is important at this moment is who is crossing the threshold and who is becoming a deputy – that they will make us apprentices, as is happening in the legislature.
The best of the best would be for them all to gather around one goal – for Kosovo to become richer and for its people to live a better and more economically stable life. This would mean more pronounced control of the Assembly towards the Government and the efficient functioning of the Commissions when laws must be passed. It is not enough just to pass laws, because laws by themselves, even if they were the most perfect, would not solve problems. Let alone the laws passed by this Assembly – which are often approved almost as if they were being drafted for some other country that is not Kosovo.
By the end of the month or the beginning of the next, maybe we will have an Assembly, and maybe even a Government. In any case, the new government should have as its second person someone who knows the economy (and who is not the most diligent interpreter of the Constitution, but who is a financier) and who can coordinate all the ministries that directly affect the economic development of the country. Without having a clear development strategy, without having actions with immediate effects, especially in the private sector, without having determination for reform – we will cut even deeper.
And even if we go to the elections again, the post will not remain without acting.
I have written very often, if we do not know, it is not acceptable to ask for help from someone who knows – but definitely not from someone who will teach us to conclude sales contracts – as happened to us with the sale of Distribution – a document which was finally made public after 13 years, and where we realize that with our own hands, we have handed over a strategic asset to private hands, and we have taken on all the obligations and risks, resulting in doubly harmful losses. May the money be haram for the one who received a percentage in this transaction.
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Yesterday was Liberation Day – and we didn’t even celebrate it properly – because it’s not even an official holiday.
It’s good that the World Football Championship started – anyway more interesting than Kosovo’s politics, which is turning into a bad dream that seems to have no end.
