Haxhiu’s commemoration of the Kaçanik Constitution sparks criticism: PDK MP calls it hypocrisy

On September 7, 1990, delegates of the then Assembly of Kosovo gathered in Kaçanik to adopt the Constitution that gave legal effect to the Declaration of Independence proclaimed on July 2 of that same year. This act, regarded as a defining part of the country’s modern history, marked a decisive moment in the efforts to achieve statehood.

Albulena Haxhiu, acting president, commemorated the 36th anniversary of the event, describing it as a pivotal moment in Kosovo’s journey toward independence. She emphasized that during a period of severe repression and political persecution, Kosovo’s MPs managed to gather in Kaçanik to lay the constitutional foundations for the aspiration to establish a republic, which had been expressed two months earlier.

According to her, while Serbia was dismantling Kosovo’s autonomy, dissolving its institutions and seeking to suppress the aspirations of its citizens by force, the Kaçanik Constitution became the response of a people who refused to relinquish their right to self-determination. Haxhiu added that the significance of that day went beyond the legal text that was adopted, because it demonstrated that even under occupation and violence, Kosovo had the people, knowledge and determination to give legal form to its political direction.

The statement prompted a reaction. Blerta Deliu-Kodra, an MP from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, described Haxhiu’s position as hypocritical. In a post on the social network Facebook, she accused the acting president of commemorating the courage of the delegates and the foundations of the Republic while, according to her, keeping the country in crisis today by ignoring the Constitution and the Constitutional Court’s decisions.

“The delegates of the past defied Serbia to build the Republic; now the Constitution is being defied solely to retain power,” Deliu-Kodra said in her response.