Gjini: Decision on participation in September 9 session to be made on September 8

Ardian Gjini, chairman of the Alliance, has described the calling of the constitutive session of Kosovo’s Assembly as a new constitutional violation.

During an extraordinary press conference, Gjini said that caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti was not only making a mockery of the state and its citizens, but also of the 120 members of Kosovo’s Assembly. According to him, the lawmakers’ mandates were being allowed to expire, an act he described as a criminal offense.

He said Kurti had granted himself an additional 30 days and that, although this action itself constituted a violation, those 30 days were now also being violated.

Speaking about LVV, Gjini said that the people responsible for these actions would be remembered as the biggest supercriminals in Kosovo’s history.

He described the calling of the session for September 9 as a brutal violation of the constitutional norm and spirit, as well as of the Constitution itself, which, he said, had already been violated earlier. Gjini described this as a mockery of the state and its citizens, as well as an extreme abuse of everything the state offers a political entity that wins elections.

He stressed that the overwhelming majority of lawmakers, if not all of them, had understood that the Constitution had been violated even 30 days earlier. Nevertheless, he said, they had chosen to follow a peaceful path, with the aim of ensuring that Kosovo did not move away from the constitutional framework and return to square one.

According to Gjini, a single person, who had unlawfully appointed the institutions and had been tolerated by all political parties, gave himself another 30 days but also violated the deadline he had set himself. He called the situation anarchy and reiterated that these people would be remembered as supercriminals in Kosovo’s history.

Gjini said Kurti intended to set the election date himself, mentioning November 22 or December 27 as possible dates.

In his view, through his latest actions Kurti had left no room for a normal and constitutional solution in Kosovo, while closing off every possibility of discussing the country’s future. Gjini said efforts were being made to set the election date through successive violations of the Constitution.

He also referred to the scene witnessed the day before yesterday at Kosovo’s Prosecutorial Council, saying that the same situation could be seen every day if Kurti continued appointing institutions. According to him, that scene recalled the darkest years of totalitarianism and the violence carried out in the name of the law by people who were nothing more than apparatchiks. Gjini warned that such behavior, like that seen two days ago at the Prosecutorial Council, would be repeated.

Asked whether they would attend the session, Gjini said the decision would be made at the regular meeting of the Presidency, which would be held on September 8. He added that, if necessary, the meeting could be called earlier.

Gjini described the calling of the session as a mockery of the citizens, the state and the 120 members of Kosovo’s Assembly, whose mandates, he said, had been allowed to expire. He stressed that such an action constituted a criminal offense and that no one had the right to strip the people’s elected representatives of their mandates.

He said he had not been in contact with the former opposition parties, but announced that he would meet very soon with PDK Chairman Bedri Hamza. Gjini also said he would try to arrange a meeting with LDK Chairman Lumir Abdixhiku.

As for Albin Kurti, Gjini said he had no plans to meet him under ordinary circumstances. He said he was ready for a face-to-face debate in a television studio, with live cameras, so that the people of Kosovo could hear everything the two sides had to say to each other.

Gjini added that he had a great deal to say to Kurti and had left it to him to choose the studio, television station, journalist, time, day and every other detail of the meeting, on the condition that citizens could see what the two had to say to each other.