Kurt with the opposition, against DUI Grubi: He did the same in his past choices but without success

Prime Minister Albin Kurti supports the Albanian opposition in northern Macedonia, ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections in the neighbouring state. Consequently, he is opposed DUI, the largest Albanian party in RMV. Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, says Kosovo government chief will succeed there as well.

Parliamentary and presidential elections in northern Macedonia are also important for Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is supporting the opposition parties' coalition in the neighbouring state.

In the Democratic Union for Integration, the largest Albanian party in the RMV, they have clearly been indignant with this involvement of Kurti. Now they openly say that “Kurt is mixing”.

Artan Grubi, deputy prime minister of Northern Macedonia who comes from DUI, said Kurti had not invited any representatives from this party when he gathered them to his office in Pristina, representatives of opposition parties that have joined a coalition earlier this month.

We didn't have an invitation. For reasons you should ask the prime minister of Kosovo. Also for the motives of that meeting with political parties, as far as DUI's opposition independences, should be called to the prime minister, while wine over the need for that meeting in Kosovo society”, Grubi said.

He said Kurti “without success” had done the same in previous elections in the RMV.

The same thing and the event occurred in the 2019 presidential elections, as well as in parliamentary elections in 2020, but without success”, Grubi told Express.

Northern Macedonia Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi also recently said Kurti “is mixing” on Skopje's political issue.

The “cannot be defined differently than the mixture, since a prime minister, even under the pretext as head of a political subject, in any respect, may even be perceived as mixed. I don't think it's good for Kosovo and the subject it leads, for many reasons. That's because you open doors that shouldn't be opened. We are to make changes for the better”, Xhaferi said on Friday in an interview for Kalxo.com.

Kurti at the beginning of this month received leaders from several Albanian political parties from Northern Macedonia in Pristina. Arben Taravari, chairman of the Alliance for Albanians, Bilal Kasami, chairman of the Besa Movement, Izet Mexhiti, chairman of the Democratic Movement and Africa Gashi, chairman of the Allied Alliance, were invited by the Kosovo government's chief at the meeting, at which Kosovo's chief parliament, Glauk Konjufca, attended.

The prime minister's office announced after the meeting that they had discussed that after the presidential elections, the head of state in Northern Macedonia become one of the Albanians.

“Four leaders expressed their proposal for a president of North Macedonia, who embodys co-existence between ethnicities and guarantees the European route of Northern Macedonia, the president, who this time must come from the middle of Albanians”, was said in the communiqué issued by ZKM.

After this meeting, Taravari announced on Facebook that he would join the opposition, which made him the candidate for president. This caused divisions in the second largest Albanian party in northern Macedonia, after former leader Ziadin Sela and a considerable part of this party came against that stance.

Late last year, Izet Mexhit had written that Kurti's Vetevendosje Movement had joined the Albanian opposition coalition, with whom it reported opening a joint headquarters in Skopje. This came several months after Kosovo's prime minister offered this support even physically during a very controversial visit to northern Macedonia in August 2023.

A month after that post of Mexhi on 25 January this year, Northern Macedonia President Stevo Pendarovski came to Pristina.

Kurti's meeting, which wants to somehow influence the political scene at the neighbouring country of Pendarovski, which has expressed readiness to re-advant another term president in Northern Macedonia was described as very good.

“Our two countries and states want the best of each other and have good communication and co-operation both institutionally and at the level of our societies”, Kurti declared, thanking Pendarovski for supporting Kosovo on various issues of common interest, especially on the international level through support for joining international organisations.

This meeting may have been wrongly perceived as Kurt's setback from trying to get involved in the Macedonian political scene. Moreover, the meeting was held two days after Kurti was in Skopje for the meeting of Western Balkan leaders, from which he said LVV sé participates in the elections there.

The Vetevendosje movement is not registered in northern Macedonia. We have activists, we have officials of our political subject in Kosovo coming from Northern Macedonia, but here we do not have a formally registered Vetevendosje centre, so we as Vetevendosje Movement are not participating here”, Kurti said at a news conference.

Asked whether Albanian political parties in the RMV should have their own candidates for president in the country, Kurti said they should decide for that.

I want to have as much participation in the elections as possible, because this contributes to democracy. We know that the last census, including Mrgatta, has led Albanians to northern Macedonia with a percentage of 29%, if I'm not mistaken and of course they have to decide for themselves whether there will be a candidate and who he or she will be”, Kurti said.

Bekim Qoku, Kurti adviser from North Macedonia's Ohrid, regularly participates in the activities of the opposition coalition of Albanian parties in RMV. That inevitable was also at Tuesday's meeting in the Government of Kosovo.

Ali Ahmeti, chairman of the Democratic Union for Integration, the largest Albanian party in northern Macedonia, said weeks ago that Kurti should say openly whether he is aiming to compete in this way even in the parliamentary and presidential elections in Northern Macedonia.

There is nothing wrong with the appointment. I've been with Kurt with my associates. Each leader sets some goals for action, but what Mexhit said does not coincide with Kurt's statement in Skopje, which said the Vetevendosje Movement does not participate in these elections. If there is a strategy to build things up, let things be said out loud and nothing prevents us from doing anything”, Ahmeti said in an interview in RTK.

Currently, the government of Northern Macedonia is led by Talat Xhaferi of DUI, who in late January became the first Albanian to take the post. It is a technical government that will last until it is followed by the new government with full mandate, which will emerge from the May 8th parliamentary elections, in which Albanians are expected to increase the number of MPs. The same day, the second round of presidential elections takes place. The first will take place on April 24th.

Since coming to power, Kurti seems to have intrigued participation in the Albanian political scene even in surrounding states in several ways. In Albania, opposition went officially to Prime Minister Edi Rama, competing with his party in parliamentary elections in 2021, and in the Valley also intervened, supporting a political arm.