Albin Kurti's promise of extreme, untrustworthy poverty extinction

For the disappearance of unemployment, as one of the promises of the winner of the February 14th election, there is little optimism. Albin Kurti has pledged that his government will not allow 100,000 Kosovo citizens to live with less than 1 euros a day. However, this is seen beyond the expectations that someone in Kosovo has. That, as it is saying, the government does not have <x0-scope” to change this situation.

The winner of the February 14th legislative elections in Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has not rarely declared that Kosovo has been destroyed by unemployment and corruption. For this, he has pledged that he will not allow citizens to live in extreme poverty. In the governing program “Cret and Direct”, we also cited some policies that will reportedly draw up to eliminate extreme poverty.

Our government will not allow our 100,000 fellow citizens to live on less than 1 euro a day. As through seasonal employment policies, separate funds for finding and supporting opportunities for sporadic work and the homes of these families, education measures, or complete revision of social support schemes will be made sure that we are close to those who most need the hand of public. At the same time, we will enable the distribution of monetary vouchers, which can be exploited by social aid beneficiaries exclusively for the purchase of essential food products produced in Kosovo”, the Vetevendosje Movement programme says.

However, from civil society, such promises are considered difficult to make. FOL Movement Director Meddition Demolli-Niman says miracles cannot be expected from incoming governance.

 I wouldn't use the word "ducation," we can say evental softness because extinction is very optimistic, beyond the expectations that anyone has in Kosovo today. In view of a budget that we have, we are in a very serious situation with economic conditions and the cause of pandemic. So, we have to be honest, the government has no magic wand and all the demands and needs citizens have. Therefore, I wouldn't say extinction, maybe we could see some domesticity in the four-year term of government”, she says.

Furthermore, it stresses that over the years the justice system has also been destroyed, where fighting corruption would be a top priority.

 “We also have lists where international reports show what ranking Kosovo is in terms of corruption. And we're really far from a country that a potential investor would like to invest. The last case in terms of the Ministry of Agriculture subsidies has shown much. There have been a lot of subsidies from many different donors and we see how they completed”, she adds.

So says Independent Kosovo Private Sector Union Chairman Yusuf Azemi. He even says Kosovo has lost the step for easing unemployment and fighting corruption.

 The bureaucracy we've had on the inside and the search for illegal means in investors has led foreign investors who are very hard to survive. The bad news is that internal businesses are seeing that they cannot develop a business as well as those with their capital and that many people are leaving. Great informality has also made it its own that workers often hesitate to work because it cannot be worked without a working contract and without the intelligence of the Law on the Collective Agreement”, he points out.

Azemi says that there are no rare cases, with employers ' violating the law, workers do not even want to work.

“The creation of conditions or the inhalation of foreign investors, the creation of conditions for foreign investors is the most elementary step, which of course with foreign capital will create new jobs. Normally, the standard or position of the worker will also be adjusted. This is something more basic”, he adds.

According to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency in 2019, it was 22.6 per cent. Meanwhile, in a response to KosovoPress, they have not submitted data for the past year because of preparations for population registration. Otherwise, unemployment remains nearly the same figures before declaring independence and after it.