Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti, in an interview for Kosovapress, said the only question not included in the long list of queries that President Atifete Jahjaga sent to the Constitutional Court was “who is she really”. “The President prepared a long questionnaire that resembled a reporter sending questions for an interview to the president of the Constitutional Court. If someone reads those questions it will be hard to believe that they are coming from the president of a state. The president had raised so many dilemmas that the only question remaining was ‘who am I’,” Kurti said.
The Vetevendosje leader said the coalition of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), the Initiative for Kosovo (Nisma) and Vetevendosje is natural, despite his earlier criticism against the LDK and AAK.
“I can say that we are along the same lines as far as economic issues are concerned, more precisely the process of privatization. We agree that there should be a special law on Trepca; we agree that some of privatizations need to be reviewed and we also agree that there should be no such privatizations,” Kurti said. “But as we are still holding talks, I don’t want to preempt anything. What I can say for now is that we are moving toward joint positions, but we have differences as far as expressions and formulations of our positions and goals are concerned.”
Kurti said he does not want to preempt the result of the Monday meeting but confirmed that four key elements have been clarified. “There needs to be a parliamentary investigation on dialogue because the process lacked both principles and transparency. Second, and this is very important, last year’s agreement should be sent to the Venice Commission to rule on its constitutionality and compliance with European standards and human rights. Third, dialogue with Kosovo Serbs, not within the framework of reconciliation, but within the framework of development. And last but not least, dialogue in Brussels so far has been conducted within the European Commission’s sector for foreign policy and security. We need to shift it to the enlargement department,” Kurti said.
“We are not holding these talks because we like one another, but because Kosovo needs these talks. We are not here to do anything else but to rescue the state from this government. Of course we criticized and accused these parties, and they have done the same way to us; but one party has seized the state and this party is not the LDK, AAK, Nisma, it is the PDK,” Kurti said.
Kurti said the Vetevendosje Movement is not backing down from its terms to join a government formed by the opposition coalition or to support it from outside. “The moment that the state of Kosovo will no longer follow Thaci’s footsteps with respect to neo-liberal privatization and dialogue with Serbia, we will reshape our position vis-a-vis Serbia and toward the economic development of Kosovo. Only then we will be able to say that there is a new state course underway and the Vetevendosje is ready to support a government that wants to rescue the state”.
Kurti said the opposition coalition was natural and not formed out of spite against the PDK, but rather to rescue the state from this party. “I don’t think it has nothing to do with spite. In fact the word spite can most often be heard from PDK officials, never from Vetevendosje or the LDK-AAK-Nisma coalition. We are here for Kosovo’s sake and the majority of people did not vote for the PDK. The majority of people that did not vote for the PDK are against it,” Kurti said.
Kurti said the four parties have yet to discuss eventual posts in government and he did not want to say if he will be a minister in an eventual government led by Haradinaj. “The third phase of talks has yet to be opened. Our focus is not on the issue of posts and positions,” he said.
Kurti also said another condition to join an eventual government with Haradinaj as prime minister is the Serbian List. He said that they don’t even wish to see the Serbian List in parliament and let alone in government, “because the Serbian List remains a synonym of Serbia within Kosovo and as such it is not acceptable for us”. “Of course we don’t want them in government, because we don’t want them in parliament either, they are a gift from the outgoing prime minister. I am saying it here and I will say it again when the third phase of talks commences,” Kurti said.
