Haradinaj's Thaci in political competition for dominance

Imer Mushkolaj, political affairs analyst, tells Radio Free Europe that the actual executive power in Kosovo has its government, the country's prime minister, which in the current term is Ramush Haradinaj, respectively. But, according to him, this is not happening, and the current actuality is revealing the situation in which the country's president, Hashim Thaci, is aiming to assume the responsibilities and competencies that other institutions have, primarily those the prime minister has.

“So far I have seen that President Thaci constantly seeks to take over the competencies, the prime minister's responsibilities, now that Haradinaj is at the top of the country, but also in the past when he was Isa Mustafa, in order to show that he is the main one in this country”.

This is extremely harmful because it is a violation of the Constitution in a practical way. But, on the other hand, more important than that, it is about mixing the competencies and placing someone's political power, which in this case is Thaci, to then translate this into executive power”, Mushkolaj said.

Similarly, another analyst, Artan Muhajiri, describes the situation. Speaking to Radio Free Europe, he suggests that the intervention of powers in each other's competencies is a consequence of political rivalries aimed at disproportionating power.

“Testing that from an autonomous level of power be intervened at another autonomous level of power, is evidence of the unhappy level of political culture in Kosovo and the political mentality of our institutional leaders. This is a political race for domination in power even when it is not based on rules of a normal and standard policy. This is done to be imposed as a powerful factor in opinion, in the political spectrum, but even in Kosovo's state report with the international”, Mujadir said.

Meanwhile, analyst Mushkolaj says the practical examples of exercising political rivalry through the blending of competencies or interference of one level of power in the other level of power's competencies have also had recently.

The “Despite not accepting this, that it was President Thaci's initiative to assume, the first few days' intervention in the north, and the arrest of top Serbian official Marko Djuric, in some form took place under the scenario and under Thaci's organisation. This should not be so, because it has been an action that police would have to take with the blessing of the respective institution, the Interior Ministry, respectively. But there have been other cases, in the sense of the public show, when Thaci has tried to take over the prime minister's competencies, despite the Constitution's not allowing it to happen and should not have happened this way”, Mushkolaj said.

Analyst Mujarır says that interference in the competencies of one level at the next level of power has been in the case of the arrest and expulsion of six Turkish citizens from Kosovo to Turkey on March 29th. As he emphasises, rather than the head of the government, Haradinaj was informed of the operation and then he would announce the opinion on the details, that is what President Thaci did.

This shouldn't have happened, but it's an example where in this case the president was more powerful than the Government, in a domain and in an issue that he would have to be in. Intervention from one level to another occurs for two reasons. Because of the political ambitions of one side to dominate the other, but also because the appointed institutional leaders allow this and do not take measures for power-sharing to be done in a direct way, as it should be”, Muhrami stressed.

According to political development connoisseurs, intervention of one level of power in other-level competencies negatively affects not only the current political issues in the country but sets precedent for interventions and blending of competencies, which seriously damage the country's political system.