A drama that damaged Kosovo

A year ago, the president of Kosovo, supported by the prime minister of Albania, and both enthusiastic about the idea of ​​the Serbian president, launched - frantically - the campaign for the "correction of the borders" of Kosovo. Today, Kosovo is even deeper in the dead end - and the fault is not only the president's.

A year ago, the president of Kosovo started a rhetorical rant. He suddenly started appearing in press conferences and talking about the union of the Presheva Valley with Kosovo. There will be no division, he insisted. He said that he will discuss with the Serbian side the plebiscite declaration of the Presheva Valley, Medveja and Bujanoci, from 1992, for union with Kosovo. He called the media reports about the option for the exchange of territories "fake news", but said that there will be a correction of the borders with Serbia. "We will have a correction of the borders. As we have worked with all the states of the region and have reached the demarcation agreement with Montenegro and Macedonia, in the case of mutual recognition of the two countries we will have state borders, we have about 400 kilometers of border line with Serbia", he said. on July 31, 2018.
Then the president of Kosovo began to attack all those who opposed him or at least told him that there are many contradictions in his statements, that he cannot carry this burden by himself, that there is an urgent need for social consensus, agreement with the political parties of the position and the opposition , a kind of good faith pact with the Kosovars.
The president of Kosovo was not interested in any of this. With America behind him, he thought he would push forward every idea, although even the new administration in Washington was not clear about the plan that the president of Kosovo and the Serbian president were thinking of cooking. But "if you get along, we'll see", this was the message from Washington, where the current president loses his attention to a problem after 5 minutes.
In the adventure for "correcting the borders" of Kosovo, the president of Kosovo enjoyed the support of the prime minister of Albania, who with his statements about Kosovo has often caused damage and polarized society. He is the only prime minister of Albania whose speech was boycotted by the opposition in Kosovo because of a speech where he tried to rewrite the history of Kosovo, ignoring the peaceful movement and its merits for the independence of Kosovo. He is the only Albanian prime minister who speaks tactlessly about Kosovo. In the ceremony of the 10th anniversary of the declaration of Independence, he proposes a joint president - a calculated provocation towards the European Union, to which he wants to say: if you do not accept us in the EU, we Albanians will join. Whoever calls the president of Kosovo a traitor is an ass - with this order from Peja, the Albanian prime minister caused a lot of tension in the public opinion, because with this he did not defend the president of Kosovo from a serious accusation made by his most aggressive opponents, but he defended him the idea of ​​"correcting borders". During the last 12 months, in the political scene of Tirana and Pristina, we saw two politicians - the prime minister and the mayor - advertising the Serbian president's idea of ​​"definition" with the Albanians.
It was seen that such games, played in secret to the opinion, are difficult to play. Lobbyists paid with state money and accountable to no one are not enough. Publicity mercenaries are not enough. Retired diplomats are not enough. Propaganda is not enough. In the last 12 months, the verbal conflict between the president of Kosovo and the former president of Albania, Sali Berisha, escalated to disgust. They insulted and cursed as much as they could, they pushed who is the most traitor and collaborator of Serbia.
After a year, it can be said that the debate on the "correction of borders" has brought Kosovo even deeper into the impasse. The sponsors of this idea brought together the Serbian and Kosovar presidents in a forum in Austria, each played their role: there was no mutual criticism and one said: "We are good guys". They can be good guys, but with bad ideas, without public credibility because they personify many evils that have plagued both countries, Kosovo and Serbia. The Berlin summit seems to have put an end to the debate for now, but what next? No one seems to have an answer. Especially not in Kosovo. The Prime Minister of Kosovo can be praised for having managed to "prevent the division", he can beat his chest for hosting Angela Merkel in Berlin, that earlier at the Berlin Summit he defended Kosovo "like a lion" in the face of French President Emmanuel Macron. But the same one, i.e. the Prime Minister of Kosovo, took the mandate with the statement that he does not have time to deal with the negotiations with Serbia, etc. If he doesn't have time, someone else can, in this case the president of Kosovo. With the exception of Vetevendosje, all parties were happy that the hot potato remained in the hands of the president of Kosovo, because talks with Serbia are an unpopular topic in Kosovo, so it's better to let the president burn, big deal! In fact, almost all political actors were burned and irresponsibility triumphed. The latter also burned the Social Democratic Party. After the summer holidays, the drama that damaged Kosovo can continue, because there is a plan. That plan belongs to Serbia, the president of Kosovo has started negotiating for that plan. Serbia has no reason to withdraw. He will repeat again and again that he was promised a piece of Kosovo, then we'll see if we do - maybe Kosovo will join the UN, maybe not, because it depends on Russia and not on Serbia.