Although a few months ago it insisted that the post of president should be entrusted to a non-partisan and unifying figure, the Democratic League of Kosovo is now conditioning its support for the creation of institutions on the appointment of one of its own candidates to the role.
LDK deputy leader Lutfi Haziri has said that the 18 MPs of this party can vote in a unified manner only if the candidate for president comes from LDK’s ranks.
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The question raised is whether this is a shift from the party’s previous position, or a new political situation that has brought about a different approach.
Regarding this development, in a statement to “Bota sot,” professor Nijazi Halili said that Haziri’s latest statement brings back into focus a familiar practice in Kosovo politics: the exchange of institutional posts to secure a parliamentary majority.
“The latest statements by LDK deputy leader Lutfi Haziri, regarding the possibility that LDK could offer its 18 votes in the Assembly of Kosovo as part of a possible agreement with the Vetëvendosje Movement, in exchange for the post of President, bring back to the center of attention a practice that is already well known in Kosovar politics: the exchange of institutional positions to secure parliamentary majorities.
From a political point of view, this approach is not new to the culture of coalitions in Kosovo. However, it creates a clear tension with LDK’s earlier public discourse, which has repeatedly emphasized the need for a consensual, above-party and unifying president.”
According to Halili, this way of acting is not new in the country’s coalition culture, but at the same time it harms LDK because of the change in its political approach.
He also stressed that LDK’s aim of taking the post of president shows a shift from the concept of a neutral state figure toward an openly partisan candidacy.
On this aspect, the professor elaborated further on the change in this party’s principled position.
“Haziri’s statement, according to which LDK’s votes would be unified only if the candidate for president comes from the party’s own ranks, while also mentioning names such as Lumir Abdixhiku or himself, shifts the emphasis from the idea of a neutral state figure toward a clearly partisan candidacy.
This approach creates the perception of a change in principled stance: from the demand for a non-partisan president as an institutional standard, to a political positioning that conditions support on direct party representation in the highest state post.
In this sense, it can be said that LDK has not completely abandoned the idea of a unifying president, but has reformulated it in line with realpolitik and the new balances in the Assembly of Kosovo.”
In conclusion, he assessed that LDK’s latest statements on the post of president speak more of a tactical political move than of an ideological change.
“In conclusion, this positioning appears more like a tactical approach of the moment than a deep ideological change, reflecting the usual dynamics of political negotiations in a parliamentary system where compromise remains the main instrument of institutional functioning,” Nijazi Halili concluded for “Bota sot.”
