By Ilir Deda
Dear Saša,
Since our last correspondence, unfortunately, I don’t see many changes in our countries. Kosovo has still not constituted the Assembly that resulted from the February 9 elections this year. It is unbelievable how much time has been wasted on the immature and irresponsible games of the relative winners of those elections. Beyond 2025, Kosovo has already lost 2026 and 2027 as well—particularly when it comes to reforms and financial support from the Growth Plan. Out of the €880 million allocated for Kosovo, a large share now seems destined to be redirected to other Western Balkan countries. Even if we were to constitute the Assembly tomorrow, ratify agreements with the EU immediately, and get a functioning government the day after that to implement the reforms tied to the Growth Plan—we would still not be in a position to meet our obligations, namely the reforms, and we would lose the financial support.
No one in the political establishment cares about this.
That establishment is consumed by hatred. Hatred toward the West, hatred toward all dissenting voices—undermining the entire legal framework and painstakingly established practices, trampling on the very foundation of Kosovo’s statehood, which is conditioned on multiethnicity. On a party level, Vetëvendosje and Srpska Lista feed off each other ahead of the October 12 local elections. For Kurti’s followers, any note of dissent from their shallow politics is immediately branded as collaboration with Belgrade and Srpska Lista. In a serious state—or in Bolshevik systems—the list of “domestic traitors” marked for elimination would be a very long one. As for Serbia, I know that a toxic public discourse has been its reality for nearly four decades. We have now joined that same sludge of public and political life—caught between “traitors” and “patriots.”
Tragic.
The shallow discourse of hatred, especially interethnic hatred, is successfully countered by independent media and civil society.
What is missing, however, is a decisive break with populism from the once-opposition parties.
Political and social polarization in Kosovo only makes sense if it produces two clearly defined visions for the future. One of them already exists.
The battle for the future has begun—sadly, so far, without a clear vision. The key question is whether the current (former) opposition in Kosovo is truly ready to change the existing rules of the game. First, the political divides of past decades should be closed, by moving toward an alliance between the center and the Europhile right. This would put an end to the old divide—now utterly irrelevant—between the former supporters of the Democratic League and the Democratic Party. Today’s LDK and PDK are, more or less, reformed parties, struggling to shape themselves along Western lines—LDK being a member of the EPP, while PDK belongs to ALDE. These two parties should become the pillars of a political alliance that must be boldly fused with a transformative vision and program for Kosovo’s future, offering clear answers to all the challenges the country and society face. This alliance doesn’t have to be an electoral coalition, but rather an agreement on sharing responsibility.
I will return to these topics in the next five exchanges we have, because I believe this step is both overdue and absolutely necessary.
The future is also being awaited by the Serbs in Kosovo, especially those in the northern municipalities who, for the past two years, have been paying a heavy price for the politics of institutional boycotts, for the chauvinism of Kurti’s government, and for the immense pressure from the Serbian government. It is illusory to expect political pluralism—most Serbs will likely vote en masse for Srpska Lista, even though they don’t trust it, thereby continuing the vicious cycle.
What remains for all of us is to accept, understand, and respect that Kosovo can only succeed as a country of free and equal citizens—people who can openly express their identity, ethnic and religious, without fear of which flag they carry or which shirt they wear. That is the constitutional Kosovo.
Warm regards,
Ilir
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
