Dukagjin Gorani: Prime Minister Mustafa mentioned all the consequences, but not even the causes that brought Government down

“With a direct approach, Mustafa summed up the consequences produced during his term as prime minister. Of course, most of them are real events and undeniable facts. However, he did not mention the causes that resulted. Why did he protest so massively two years in a row? Why was tear gas thrown in the vault for months? The prime minister in office refuses to acknowledge that the coalition with the PDK in 2014 was probably its biggest mistake in political career...”, he says.

Interviewed: Shpend Goodaqi 

Periscope: Mr. Gorani, how did he comment on the prime minister's recent angry posts, Isa Mustafa? There, the Vetevendosje Movement is accused and severely hit, as the main destructive element in the country's political stability.

GoraniIt's kind of complicated to explain Mr. Mustafa. By all means, the tone of his posts is highly accuser and very personal. It is the angry interpretation of the crisis and incidents that he experienced during coalition rule with the PDK. With a direct approach, Mustafa summed up the consequences that were produced during his mandate as prime minister. Many, true events, and undeniable facts.

But, Mr. Mustafa did not mention the causes that produced these consequences. Here, I mean, it causes incorrigibity in his posts. What are the reasons they produced all those incidents during his term? Why did he protest so massively two years in a row? Why was tear gas thrown in the vault for months?

From what is noted in his statements, it seems that Mr. Mustafa refuses to admit that the coalition with the PDK in 2014 was likely its biggest mistake in political career. It was a pressing decision that gave the opposite direction to the then social enthusiasm for change. That decision produced an alternative history of our society that we are living in today - a reality of despair, mutual insults, loss of hope, and trust.

I regret to repeat that in his posts, Prime Minister Mustafa did not mention that the government coalition signed the harmful agreements of Zajednica and Demarkation; that during his term, our Astrit Dehar died in prison without guilt and without evidence, while the public's accusations against his rule reached unprecedented levels since the post-war.

Periscope: However, Mustafa does not house the PDK as well, clearly hinting at the contrasts made by current President Thaci, while he mentioned it. SHIK lists the current PDK chairman Kadri Veselini indirectly?

Gorani: True, but it matters little today. Abandoning Block V LAN in 2014 and Mr. Mustafa with the PDK was hungry in a warned political and social catastrophe. I think then Mustafa was aware of this, but he still believed that in time he would succeed in leading a correct and successful government. This proved to have been a completely baseless faith. Likely, he had not correctly understood the two main things in the Kosovo state-captive drama: Volume Dock Its structure connected with PDK and scale of indifference The international community faced this situation.

Thus, with becoming prime minister, Mustafa calculated that through a new, dedicated cabinet, but also limited to financial and budgetary correction alone, dealt with the state's structural and multi-year approach. Moreover, he also calculated concrete contributions from the international community, which he believed would appreciate the dedication of his cabinet and would become Allied in confronting the true authorities of the state and with which he joined the coalition.

Not only did all this prove wrong, but it also revealed an old political logic that characterised the LDK over decades: that governance means only management of the existing situation, and not political action to change it.

In short, the Mustafa government tried to improve the damage caused by political decisions in completely other areas, such as humiliating dialogue with Serbia, problem demarcation with Montenegro and Zajednica, which is opposed by the country's own Constitution. It was absurd and impossible.

Thus, all government devotion Mustafa passed almost entirely ignored. The correctness of his cabinet in state financial administration did not suffice to improve catastrophic political decisions. Here, his belief that such a thing was possible is seen as a temporary abnormality in his and the LDK's (not only) political logic but also of many other public and political acts in Kosovo.

Periscope: What anomalies are you talking about?

Gorani: During his mandate, Prime Minister Mustafa and the LDK calculated aid that did not exist in reality. They estimate that harmful decisions, such as the Zajednica demarcation, would remain the responsibility of the international community since it was regarded as their chief sponsor. They calculated that, somehow, the international community would find ways to force the opposition and other objectors to comply with these decisions. Big mistake.

During his mandate, Mustafa believed his responsibility was only management of the budget and cabinet, while the major decisions understood him as the international domain. Such logic, of sharing of jobs in local and international countries, constitutes a temporary abnormality in interpreting the government's mandate and public responsibility in Kosovo politics. To this day, this logic fails to understand correctly the real role and responsibilities the international community has in Kosovo. She really is sponsor of any Kosovo initiative of regional importance, but she does not make decisions for you, nor does she force you into action. Well, the last decision is yours. And thus is the responsibility.

After all, the internationals also upheld the Constitutional Court's absurd judgment on the electoral winner, the Demarket proposal, and the agreement on Zajednica, but that did not mean they signed them in reality. Formally, they brought no decision: this is what our government, Mustafa and Thaci did. If you criticise Quint's ambassadors today for those absurd decisions, they will say they may have been their suggestion, but that the final decision was made by Prime Minister Mustafa's parliamentary and government coalition. Such reasoning may sound incorrect morally and politically false, but it is a legal fact and a formal truth.

So today, for good reason, all these decisions are understood as the responsibility of Prime Minister Mustafa and his government. Like these, they produced both tear in the vault and eggs on the street.

Periscope: However, if the charges in his posts are carefully read, it turns out that any further co-operation between him as LDK chairman and Vetevendosje Movement is already impossible...

Gorani: Prime Minister Mustafa's recent posts speak of an extremely personal experience of the Vetevendosje Movement's objections to these harmful political decisions. He has the right to feel offended, but that session does not define the motives of the Vetevendosje Movement's opposition. Her shares to the government Mustafa were never personal. Neither ʹ70 files in the prosecution from the period of municipal governance nor family involvement have ever had personal motives, but only public and political. It is meaningless that the prosecution's indictment is considered a personal discreditment. The Vetevendosje movement has the right to accuse and criticize, but cannot determine someone's legal guilt.

As for possible co-operation between the LDK and the Vetevendosje Movement. I think, among other things, Mr. Mustafa is also an attempt to convince his party that the opposition LDK remnant should be understood double punishment for both party and society. Being extremely bitter and disappointed, Mustafa is insisting that society, which did not appreciate his presence and work, challenge him with his absence and his party at this moment of institutional stalemate. It's this understanding reaction from the personal and emotional angle, but not very reasonable by the political and public.

Periscope: He accuses Vetevendosje Movement that by its actions he opened the way to those who are trying to form government with trade and sex...

Gorani: Yeah, he's blaming Vetevendosje Movement as his government's co-destructors. That is formally true since its MPs voted to dismantle his government. But Mr. Mustafa that we helped him with PDK is absurd. It was not the Vetevendosje Movement that made the government coalition with the PDK, but it was him and the LDK.

According to him, it has been necessary for the Mustafa government to continue because it has been successful. That would be true if it was considered only managing public finances, not reforming the justice system, health, education, etc. I think Mustafa is mistaken when it is only limited to the bureau-managemental interpretation of the concept of state government, avoiding what includes political decisions and actions. True, Mustafa and his cabinet successfully managed the budget, but that The PDK continued to control everything else.

After all, in his posts Mr. Mustafa does not express consideration for the injuries and grief his government caused the Vetevendosje Movement. I repeat, during his term, four of our activists were arrested without guilt and no evidence charged today with terrorism. Astrit Dehar, one of them, died in prison under suspicious and undisputed circumstances.

For me, it's especially symptoms ignoring this tragedy in his posts. This gives the impression that the justice and security system -- prosecutors and police -- was not his responsibility at all; as if police directors, prosecutors and chief prosecutors were understood outside government range. How, then, can it be that the foreign embassies are tried to react to violations during the appointment of judges to the Kosovo Judiciary Council, while Mustafa and his government are silent?

Prime Minister Mustafa today may feel offended, but that does not reason the key description he makes to his society and rule.

Periscope: Do you agree that these last attitudes of Mr. Mustafa put an end to coalition efforts between LAA and LV?

Gorani: His refusal to cooperate with Vetevendosje Movement makes sense. Personally, I also consider it a loss to Mr. Mustafa since I've been inclined to make his engagement in the LDK during the years '90s and later interpret it as reformer and progressive. He managed, however, to bring together a team of young professionals who trusted his reform goals despite trouble and internal opposition.

Therefore, his outbursts of resentment at the Vetevendosje Movement are for pity. We're not his enemy, as we weren't during VLAN's time. In fact, his reform goals for the LDK could only get sense through a government coalition with a vital and pro-active organisation what the Vetevendosje Movement is. Within this co-operation, new and progressive frameworks that are today the most voted representatives in the LDK could find room. I'm afraid any other interparty construction would disappoint them and remove them from the political scene.

However, unlike Mr. Mustafa, the Vetevendosje Movement has never believed that on behalf of the country's interest it should enter coalitions of thieves and extortioners. Such logic risks understanding the existence of criminals in politics as a social fact to reconcile. Such an attitude was and remains absurd of its kind.

All in the end, from personal experience: behind all that anger and frustration, I believe Mr. Mustafa testifies to the disaster that produces an impossible situation in political life when you try to be a good man in bad company. Association, as well as the coalition, should be chosen with conviction and will, not with anger.