“Pristina in crisis if budget failure, Government with a completely blocked approach”

Pristina Deputy Chairman Alban Zogaj in an interview for Online Economy warned that if the budget for 2025 is not voted under legal terms, the capital will have a budget crisis.

Zogaj has clarified that with budget failure until December, Pristina could lose some of the funds coming from the Ministry of Finance and that the Assembly could go to early elections.

It is correct that we had two extraordinary sessions to vote on the 2025 budget, but both sessions failed in the absence of quorum, because opposition parties Vetevendosje and PDK launched the hall and as a result failed to vote the budget. Now we are in October and November, which are the key months to vote on the budget, otherwise we have passed on the very important deadline that was September 30th, 2024”.

“We have a little time ahead to vote the budget, but if we don't vote until December then we only entered a Pristina budget crisis. It has two consequences, the first one is losing some of the funds we can come to that decision from the Finance Ministry, and the second if the budget is not voted further, then the assembly could go to early elections”, Zogaj said.

He added that losing the majority in the Municipal Assembly brings problems to the Pristina municipality. According to him, only the attitude of PDK and VV in the hall allow for next year's budget vote.

We don't think it was our fault, actually. The PDK has released the coalition, we are normally aware that the loss of the majority in the Municipal Assembly has brought about these problems we are seeing today. We're trying to create the majority in progress, we have an agreement with the AAK, but we're not yet in that political majority we need in the Municipal Assembly, so we need support from opposition parties, Vetevendosje and the PDK to vote on the” budget.

With just their stay in the hall we vote the budget, so our call to them is when we sit on the table to discuss, we are open to their demands for specific projects. We've been constantly open to find a common language and vote the budget”, he said.

The deputy chairman stressed that the central-level approach to the capital has been a completely blocked approach and there has been no financial support.

In fact, Zogaj stated that the additional budget has been divided only for municipalities led by the Vetevendosje Movement, while for other municipalities no additional cents have been split, EO reports.

The central government's approach to the capital is completely blocked approach, with that we have only recently been convinced because they don't help us in any Pristina project, for example yesterday we had a meeting with Kosovo's prime minister, it was a largely-called meeting by him and to help us with no results. So that meeting has no result we discussed stray dogs and collective contracts, but empty words without results. The same has been the approach in their entire mandate, blocking access mainly and we are blocked at Agim Ramadani's underpass and many other projects. Blockages are also being seen in the case of the budget jam, so the bottles clearly lack co-operation between Government and capital”, the deputy chairman stressed.

If we look at the numbers, we see the priorities of this government, the additional budget that is divided for municipalities, are largely divided for municipalities where the Vetevendosje government, the Entrance has been given a high budget, Gjilan and other municipalities when the Vetvendosje government, while in municipalities where other parties such as the LDK and PDK govern, no additional cent has been split. The capital is all Kosovo's capital, we need an additional budget to complete the problems that the capital has. Pristina's budget is a very limited budget”, he said.

Zogaj has also spoken of the 2023 Mediterranean Games, where he felt he had the tendency to leave the capital behind.

“There was a tendency that puts the capital aside from hosting the 2030 Mediterranean Games, but an agreement has recently been reached for the Mediterranean Games to be organised by a triangle of institutions -- the Pristina Community, Government and Olympic Committee. Now there is an organisational body that will deal with the entire Mediterranean body in the next four five years. I am not at risk that the games have to happen and it is one of the biggest events that has happened to not only Kosovo but the entire Balkans”, Zogaj said.

“I believe that we will reach an agreement and vote on the Pristina budget, is the development budget of large projects, and the citizens of Pristina do not deserve such a blockade, so they extend the opposition parties' invitation to sit down and find the agreement and vote on it and walk away from”, he said.