Hashim Thaci's Year

At the time when everyone thought Hashim Thaci was completing his political career with a ceremonial position, such as that of the president of Kosovo, without major executive responsibility, he took action that once again restored him to the position of Kosovo's leading political player.

The whole year 2018 in Kosovo went by talking about the final agreement with Serbia, which now according to warnings can be reached in the first part of this year. When last year reported and talked about how part of this agreement was negotiating the exchanges of territories, few believed it, until Thaci himself appeared in public and supported this idea, which said it was his.

President Thaci talked about how through this agreement, with the process of “correction of borders”, Kosovo would be joined by three Albanian municipalities in Serbia, Presevo, Medveja and Bujanovac. But he never said what could be given to Serbia in exchange, which many people believe are northern Kosovo municipalities.

Thaci almost on his own began marketing his idea, often frequenting conferences on the subject, since he said he plans to improve historical mistakes by attaching Kosovo to the valley trains that are inhabited by Albanians.

But the president faced greater opposition than he could have imagined. His idea also began to oppose former partners in the PDK. Kadri Wessel often opposed the idea of territorial exchanges, calling it an idea of Serbia and Russia, while Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj launched open opposition to Thaci, saying the “borders only play the Chimma”, referring to war.

This did not disappoint Thaci. He is known as a politician who achieves his goals through various political maneuvers, often leaving other politicians to sleep. At a conference last year, Thaci openly threatened Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj with dismissal, which prevented him from reaching this goal with all possible means. Even many people believe that even the tax on Serbia has been done just to upset Thaci's relations with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

On 29 September 2018, the Vetevendosje Movement, with the support of several LDK officials and others from civil society, held a protest with the motto “A people of São submits to a”. The protest was organised against Thaci's intentions of agreement with Serbia, however, despite its massification, Thaci again did not stop and completely ignored the protest move. He even visited Uyman Lake that day, which is controversial territory in case Kosovo and Serbia agree on territorial exchange.

Vetevendosje since that protest has made less and less opposition to Thaci. In addition to increasingly dim speech in the country and the media, VV officials have not found it reasonable to take more radical shares against Thaci, as was the latest protest. After all, even that protest was seen as an organization just to test its power, following the break that Albin Kurti's party had experienced when 13 MPs had left Vetevendosje to pursue a new political course.

Today Thaci seems to have drawn close to realizeing his idea more than ever. The Kosovo Assembly has already voted a negotiating team, which leads Shpend Ahmeti and Fatmir Limaj, both of whom Thaci. He has also received a letter from US President Donald Trump, giving support to the realisation of the final agreement with Serbia, which is thought to bring recognition of Kosovo from Serbia, the seat at the UN and the abolition of Resolution 1244.

His critics are tired, but not the president.