Kosovo’s Vetevendosje Plans Albanian Offshoot to Promote ‘Unification’

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Gjergj ErebaraTirana BIRN  April 9, 2019

Leaders of Kosovo’s opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party said they have applied to open a sister organisation in Tirana to promote the ‘national unification’ of Albanians.

Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti. Photo: EPA/Valdrin Xhemaj

Vetevendosje on Monday applied to the First Instance Court in Tirana to register a ‘centre’ under the name ‘Self-Determination Movement in Albania’, aiming to promote the nationalist, left-wing party and its campaign to unify Albanians in one country.

“The centre will work to raise awareness about national unification and integration of Albania, and Albanians into Euro-Atlantic structures… processes that should be achieved in a complementary way,” said the request to the court, which was published by Vetevendosje member Broiken Abazi on Facebook.

Under Albanian law, ‘centres’ are a form of civil society organisations, associations or foundations.

“The centre considers that the neoliberal model applied in the [Albanian] economy has accumulated capital in the hands of few and has created extreme inequality and poverty for the majority of Albanian people,” added the request published by Abazi.

Abazi, a senior figure in Vetevendosje, comes from Albania but for most of the past decade has been living in Kosovo.

Vetevendosje was founded as a street movement in 2005 to oppose any international involvement in Kosovo’s internal affairs and its future.

It then transformed into a political party and became a major force in Kosovo’s 2017 parliamentary elections, receiving 27 per cent of the popular vote.

The party, led by Albin Kurti, has long opposed dialogue with Serbia on normalising relations and has previously vowed to hold a referendum on unification with Albania if it comes to power.

However, in Albania, nationalist parties have not fared well in elections; the Red and Black Movement won less than 0.6 per cent of the votes in 2013 parliamentary elections before disappearing from the scene.

Despite this, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama expressed nationalist sentiments last January when he vowed to hold “joint meetings” between the governments of Albania and Kosovo and remove border controls between the two countries.

“During spring, we will open the border with Kosovo,” he said.

“We have copied the Schengen regime,” he added, referring to the European-wide agreement that opened borders between EU member states.