The president who declared war on his country

President Vjosa Osmani uses ethnicity as a weapon to delegate constitutional justice

If the president of the Republic of Kosovo had read Article 23 of the Constitutional Court shall probably not have entered one of the most serious performances of institutional ignorance that a head of state could make its own country.

It says: Baton Haxhiu

Because Article 23 clearly says: The Constitutional Court will decide on cases that are legitimately referred to by authorised parties, despite their withdrawal.

So even if he withdraws, the Court has the right to continue the examination. The retreat does not stop the process. He does not suspend the right of the Court. It does not abolish the request. He doesn't rule out the judge. It doesn't give the President the authority to judge the legitimacy of the judge that he happens to.

But the president chose not to adhere to the Constitution. He chose to play a theater in public. He chose to be victimized in the name of a decision that neither belongs to comment nor to stop. And instead of being silent about an internal constitutional process, he chose to publicly declare that he does not trust his own court.

Because the judge was Serbian.

There are events that occur only in fragile countries, and only when people at the top are willing to play all for themselves.

Today, Republic of Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani did one of the most serious acts imaginable in a parliamentary republic. It withdrew its request from the Constitutional Court, with the argument that the reporting judge is Radomir Laban, a Serb who, according to her and security services, poses a danger to constitutional order.

This is not just a mockery of constitutional justice. It's a proclamation of war against his country. To yourself. What an institutional recipient.

Instead of demanding his dismissal through the procedure he recognizes the Constitution itself, the president decides to attack the authority of the Court, suggesting that a judge is dangerous. But not in any case. Only when you consider her request. This is the standard of an authoritarian power that does not believe in institutions, but in its incompatible role.

If Radomir Laban was dangerous for constitutional order, then why hasn't he left earlier? Why has no download procedure been filed? Why hasn't the President exercised her constitutional duty? Why is he acting only when it comes to her demands?

Such behavior is not just arbitrary. It's devastating to local law order. It presents ethnic affiliation as criterion of judicial legitimacy. And in the most irresponsible way, the president tells everyone both inside and outside Kosovo that a Serb cannot be reliable in a constitutional institution.

What will happen tomorrow if an Albanian judicial rapporteur decides for a Serb who has applied to the Constitutional Court? Will his claim that the Albanian is unilateral be accepted? Will there be a symmetry of the same reaction from today's silent ones?

This is no longer a matter of formal decision. This is an issue affecting the core of institutional co-existence in a country built on trust in the right functioning of institutions. And the president, instead of defending this foundation, steps on his feet to protect himself from a possible judicial interpretation he dislikes.

The damage is colossal. Serbian institutions already hold a declaration that makes Kosovo look like a country that discriminates against a court member only because he is Serb, without procedure, without process, without any legal decision. And it's not Radomir Laban's fault. Guilty is the one who made the statement. It is the one who placed ethnic affiliation on the principle of justice.

No serious government faces a president who hangs against the state wall just because the judge in her case doesn't like it.

Today, the country remains unanswered: Is Radomir a national danger? If so, why has it been part, and why is it still a constitutional judge? If not, why does the President attack her in such a way?

The state works on evidence or emotion. And today's emotion of the President is the greatest risk to the constitutional order he's declared to protect.

Instead of strengthening the state in front of anyone who violates it, it weakens the state to protect itself from a legal interpretation that cannot control it.

Instead of using the post to ensure institutional seriousness, it uses it to seriously discredit one of the most important institutions left functional.

This is the most obvious collapse of the principle of equality before the law. This is the most vulgar use of nationalism to escape a judicial confrontation. And for that, no political explanation and no public consolation is enough. Because the damage is already institutional and international.