Opposition in Dilemm: New choice or platform for dialogue

According to them, the country needs new and legitimate institutions, thus opposing the legitimacy of the government, but also the president of state, to represent Kosovo in dialogue with Serbia and other vital issues for the country.

Avdullah Hoti, chief of Kosovo Democratic League Parliamentary Group, told REL, that lack, according to him, of the legitimacy of current institutions and the insistence of President Hashim Thaci to advance the dialogue process without democratic legitimacy, has prompted The LDK and other parties think of a quick election process.

But, at the same time, according to Hoti, the LDK is offering, as he says, its long experiences with construction state processes, even when it comes to drafting a platform for the final phase of dialogue with Serbia.

The descriptions of this process of dialogue agreed on between the opposition, we have already presented in the letter we have sent to Mrs. Federica Moghrini”, Hoti noted.

We now want to clear it because there are people in the middle of LDK with long experience, either two or three decades, in different processes of Kosovo statehood. We also have international friends who have helped the state of Kosovo and the LDK. We want to engage all mechanisms of people who have the necessary experience to build a document that defines principles and the way this process should go before”, Hoti said.

According to him, neither the Government nor the president of Kosovo have a platform for the dialogue process and its final phase.

These guys don't have a platform. A draft platform that was submitted in May to the Kosovo Assembly on the part of the government has been without any restraint. The only point it has had has been to mandate the country's president to lead with the process of dialogue. Then it was not clear, but today every citizen that the president has tried to obtain the mandate to negotiate Kosovo's partition. It is good that this has not been passed to the Kosovo Assembly, and today the Assembly of Kosovo has not actually legitimized anyone for this important process. It takes a concrete legitimacy of the country's institutions to advance this process”, Hoti said.

He said calls for unity in front of Serbia and allegations that the opposition is hindering this unity are inconsistent.

“Fests in style sit down together and create a consensus to face Serbia, are just trying to protect the non-legal minority, and institutions are non-functional”, he stressed.

Meanwhile, even in Vetevendosje Movement, the need for a new institutional legitimacy for representation of the country in future processes is stressed, especially at the negotiating table with Serbia in Brussels.

MP Arberie Nagavci from the Vetevendosje Movement told REL, that in the situation Kosovo is in, it is important that the country has legitimate institutions. According to her, to get out of the crisis, elections are a real option.

The “for us is important to have as powerful a partnership of opposition, so that this government can withdraw or simply be no longer in government and new elections will enable institutions, which we believe will be more legitimate, more powerful to move forward even processes that are of interest to the country”, Nagavci said.

As far as political dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is concerned with achieving an internal political consensus, it says Vetevendosje on this issue thinks there should be a re-evaluation of the whole process.

“We believe we should have a basic review of the entire process thus far. We need to see the implementation of the agreements on how they happened. Of course, red lines and things that are non-negotiable must be set”, Nagavci said in addition.

Meanwhile, Life Krasniqi from the Kosovo Democratic Institute tells Radio Free Europe that political parties should have initiatives and ideas in building a political consensus and in general be integrated into a common platform about dialogue.

“These initiatives should be such to include other parties and go towards building a unique Kosovo state stance in these talks and to be such to offer options towards building this consensus, and not as rigid positions from which different parties cannot move”, Krasniqi said.

Krasniqi says the strategies which are proposed by the different political parties should be strategies aimed at building a common position of the state of Kosovo.

Kosovo's “State in these talks should go as unique to have a position rather than push forward different positions, what we are looking at at at at the moment, we have an open stance imposed by President Thaci for border change and a different position posted by Prime Minister Haradinaj, who opposes changing borders. This in diplomatic and policymaking terms is one thing that should not happen to say in the softest way possible, and shows that we do not have a mature enough policy and that we are not building a serious state position on this issue”, Krasniqi said.