Periscop analysis: PSD in Mercy of Fate

Resigned by the Vetevendosje Movement, the Social Democrats joined and took the lead in the party. Shpend Ahmeti was elected chairman, while Visar Ymer was elected deputy chairman and Aida Dorgti was elected as secretary general.

This party already has 12 deputies in the Kosovo Assembly and rules with 2 Kosovo municipalities, including the capital. Also, the PSD, according to Dardan Moliqaj, has taken the Movement to Vetevendosje 40 percent of its structures, which translates into a large mass of activists.

But how will the PSD engage these activists, and how will it keep its structures alive? The criticism against the Haradinaj government and, in general, the ruling thinking embedded in the PDK, is monopolized by the Vetevendosje Movement and will be too hard to change that. The PSD, in its opposition, can no longer be taken seriously than the LDK. Likewise, nationalist legalisation has been monopolized by Kurti-led party. In the latest public appearance, Dardan Moliqaj said the PSD attempted to identify itself with economic and social policies, but the mobilization of measures in protests and the orientation of public opinion on these issues has shown fruitless.

That PSD members have not tacticalised and thought it out of the Vetevendosje Movement notes in the continuing deterioration of each of them's images. Each has been severely attacked and has lost popularity. From the start, the PSD is in a big disadvantage, although there are some of the people who were recently seen as people with great potential on our political scene.

The PSD will not be voted just because of the people in its composition. She needs to make a more pronounced conceptual division with the Vetevendosje Movement, to really testify to the dividing points with it, and to make her alternative conservative. It's a good start in identifying social and economic policies, prioritizing them, but to crack this identity in our society, it has to be very aggressive and creative.

Work on the ground, which Molyqaj is promising, will never suffice for this party to emerge from the risk of failing to pass the election threshold. Strengthening the structures on the ground would be done only through preparing a employment scheme with clientelelysm, which would ideally reform this party, as has been done with PDK, LDK, AAK, AKR and Initiative. The PSD should focus on its legalisation based on well-designed legal strategies, the way it would reveal its criticism and platform.

Vetevendosje had realized that it could not compete with these parties in rural areas, and in towns, so it tried to connect its activists with évagogues of ideas by making any radicality towards the economic-political system and political class: Marxist-lenism and nationalism and, finally, social democracy. And only such a mixed ideological spirit managed to stir seriousness in the eyes of public opinion. The PSD seems to have a more moderate membership, which truly believes social democracy, and which will have difficulty feeling revolt by lacking radicality in criticism.

60 percent of young people in Kosovo are unemployed. Of them, 80 percent are women. Total unemployment is over 30 percent. But even workers have no clear perspective in the absence of labour contracts, health insurance, unpaid additional work, etc. These figures have been left untapped by opposition parties, in particular by the Vetevendosje Movement, which has marginalised its economic programme. But this has been done as a result of a well-advised economy of power on the part of Kurti's party. There was no need to protest without simplifying the disk. The PSD, whose members have lost their seriousness, and who lack the needed severity at the representative level, does not seem to have any chance of changing society's protest thinking.

If the Social Democrat Party managed to pass the election threshold, it would be a major success for him as a political party. Perhaps, even its future would be bright if within a short term Kosovo managed to overcome its political problems on the international level, reinforce its sovereignty and shift the entire public debate to economic policies. But such a trouble-free future for our citizenship seems distant and the PSD's likelihood of becoming a strong party seems quite dim.

Our society has very strong tribal and family characters, which have benefited most PDK, AAK, LDK and Initiative. Even in this direction, being a centred party in the capital, the PSD's prospects look very small. So a large part of the centrist's undefined voters are shut down by monopolisation that has made Vetevendosje economic and nationalist criticism of power. While the rest, located at the most edge of the country, are closed by the four parties mentioned earlier. We're dealing with a political map in which very little space has been left to a new party.

The PSD can hope in this direction in two things: in the great mouths of the Vetevendosje Movement, in some major act which would be legalized or, in the huge flow of votes by parties operating through clientlism. Although Kosovo produces numerous surprises in politics, as it experiences more like the drama of how reality it can change, such a thing is difficult to happen.