Calls by branches of the Democratic League of Kosovo in Prishtina, Peja and Lipjan for Lumir Abdixhiku’s resignation have sparked intense debate, not only within the party’s structures, but also among citizens.
As the LDK discusses the direction it should take after the elections and its political future, opinions about its current leader remain divided. Some citizens believe Abdixhiku should continue at the head of the party, while others say the party needs a change in leadership.
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Ragip Gashi said Abdixhiku’s departure would not be a problem, telling KosovaPress: “It is no concern, there are plenty of Lumirs.”
More critical was Sejdi Shala, who said there are figures within the LDK with greater political weight. According to him, “Abdixhiku is currently the party chairman, but Lutfi Haziri also has the заслуги. It seems to me he is a bit wiser than Lumir. Meanwhile, the opposition’s condition is that it is not thinking about the people, but about personal pockets. Especially the PDK, LDK, AAK, which for 20 years rotated in government and only filled their own pockets, and had no concern for the people.”
Even harsher criticism came from citizens who believe Abdixhiku failed to meet the expectations created when he took over the leadership of the party.
Omer Halimi said the LDK has had figures better prepared for this post. He said: “Lumir should not have been made party chairman in the first place, because there were people more eminent than this Lumir. But that is the problem of these deputies and the LDK leadership. So, in my opinion, he should not have been chairman of the LDK at all, because there are people far more capable than him. Since his arrival, the only thing is, I don’t know what the LDK has gained. When the chairman of a party says, ‘I am coming and I will win the elections and I will become, I am prime minister, I am for president,’ and now when he has achieved nothing at all, he definitely has to go home.”
Another citizen, who refused to be identified, also saw Abdixhiku’s possible departure as a consequence of his political actions. He declared: “He asked for it, he made his bed, let them remove him… Because he betrayed Vjosa, he took it upon himself to give her the votes. Now, he was not able to give her many. He did not work well.”
There are also voices who believe the LDK is not tied to a single name and that changing the chairman would not harm its future.
Ndrec Shkodra said that even if Abdixhiku leaves, that does not mean the LDK will fall. According to him, “To tell the truth, even if he leaves, it does not mean the LDK will collapse. The LDK is one of the oldest parties in Kosovo and it has perspective. The only party that can protect this country is the LDK… We can see what we have from LVV, so far we have had no results from it. The LDK has declined from the position it had earlier, but I am confident it will not last long and it will rise again. Abdixhiku is not, to tell the truth, a leader such that if he leaves, the LDK will collapse. Others can come, the LDK has plenty of educated, capable cadres. So I believe that even if Abdixhiku falls, someone else will come and replace him without any kind of problem.”
If Lumir Abdixhiku’s name continues to cause divisions of opinion inside and outside the LDK, the name of Vjosa Osmani is also stirring debate.
For some citizens, the president remains among the most highly regarded figures in the country’s politics.
Ragip Gashi said that, if it were up to him, he would nominate Vjosa Osmani, saying: “As for Vjosa, she has been good, I would have proposed her. I would have proposed Vjosa. Because there is no one like her, there is no one like Vjosa. She has done what she has done, there is no one better than her.”
Sejdi Shala also gave positive assessments of Osmani. He said: “I have liked that woman, she is serious, she has thought about the state and, indeed, she has raised the state quite a lot as far as Europe and the world are concerned.”
However, not everyone shares the same opinion. Omer Halimi sees Osmani’s relationship with the LDK as an unhealed political wound. According to him, “Vjosa in one way, in one way, destroyed the LDK herself. With her arrival, she did not want to get involved there at all, not at all. Maybe it would even have been better. The people do not forget, the people punish. So I do not believe, even if Vjosa were to come as chairwoman of the LDK, even if anyone were to come, someone to come, it is not such an easy task to lead the LDK. Because with the death of the historic president Ibrahim Rugova, the LDK has never again had, so to speak, it has not been such a priority for the people of Kosovo.”
Ndrec Shkodra spoke along the same lines, saying that the return of those who have left the party should not immediately be accompanied by high posts. He said: “Vjosa Osmani, regretfully I have to say, the mistakes she made are unforgivable. They are unforgivable, because from a party that educated her, raised her in politics, she went to another side, and when she saw that the LVV party was making things foggy for her, and they brought her down from power, she returned again to the LDK. I am not opposed to her return, but the position she had — we have people in the LDK who have been there for many years and have not achieved that result to get there. For her to come from that part which she opposed, to leave once, to return directly and be in a higher position, I do not recommend it. It is not that she is uneducated, but because of the remark she has, she should slow down a little. And every LDK member with a name should understand that when they leave in this way, when they return, they should hold a somewhat lower position for a period, and be left a little more to understand what it means to leave a major party.”
