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Vremya Novostei: The shadow of Greater Albania

11 December 2010 | 17:35 | FOCUS News Agency

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Pristina. On Sunday Kosovo will hold early parliamentary elections – the first after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008, the Vremya Novostei writes.
Election results will set the future configuration of the power and the perspectives of the Belgrade-Pristina negotiations, planned for the beginning of next year.
The tension in Kosovo and the increasing popularity of the radical forces may fail the upcoming dialog and lead to a new Serbian-Albanian armed conflict.
The leadership of the Serbian state and the Serbian Orthodox Chirch already called for Kosovo Serbs to boycott the elections. In addition, many Kosovar powers are openly raising the issue about the establishment of the Greater Albania on the Balkans, which means forced restructure of the frontiers on regional level.
Over the last days the situation in Kosovo got really tense and there were the fist blood stains – the leader of the local Muslim community has been killed in the town of Leposavic.
The early elections in Kosovo turned into an inevitable condition for unprecedented political crisis, which stated in late fall.
After the resignation of 59-year-old president Fatmir Sejdiu handed in the end of September, the ruling coalition of the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Democratic Party of Kosovo of 42-year-old Hashim Thaci broke apart. And Thaci decided to forced the events.
On November 2, he initiated parliamentary voting on the non-confidence vote, which was backed by the members of his party. Acting president Jakup Krasniqi had nothing left to do but call early elections within short deadline.
“With regard to his zeal to assume monocracy for his party, Hashim Thaci’s actions are logical,” says Agron Bajrami, editor-in-chief of the Kosovar Koha Ditore newspaper.
“Sejdiu’s resignation, the following schism within the lineup of the Democratic League of Kosovo and the separation of the ruling coalition made Thaci believe that he will achieve serious victory at the elections and will be able to form a cabinet without the participation of his traditional rivaling partners.
With regard to the social-economic problems, cabinet’s resignation is nothing something that came by surprise – the trade deficit of Kosovo reached EUR 1.5 billion. However, the prime minister missed to account another very important factor – Kosovo’s image before the world community. There is not any other country in which the government calls the MPs to oust the cabinet. This is a precedent seen in Kosovo. This fact undermines the trust of the European Union and the other international institutions in the maturity of Kosovo’s democracy and may freeze the process of international recognition of our independence,” Bajrami says.