Qarri warns of deepening divisions in LDK after Abdixhiku’s reconfirmation

The extraordinary assembly of the Democratic League of Kosovo took place on Thursday. The delegates again gave their trust to Lumir Abdixhiku, reconfirming him as chairman of the LDK.

The vote was held after a motion was presented aiming to remove Abdixhiku from the party leadership.

Commenting on the developments for “Bota sot”, political analyst Gani Qarri described the initiative to dismiss the LDK leader as surprising. According to him, despite Abdixhiku surviving the confidence vote, the internal clashes have caused severe damage to the party.

Qarri said that the demand for Abdixhiku’s removal emerged quickly and unexpectedly, while the discontent surfaced “automatically” through the clash of a conspiratorial group within the LDK with the way he was leading the party.

He recalled that Abdixhiku had received a vote of confidence on January 31 of this year to continue leading the LDK. Qarri added that the result of the June 7 elections was also better than that of December 28, but, according to him, the July 30 vote on Abdixhiku’s trustworthiness gave the LDK its heaviest blow throughout its entire existence as a strong, unique and institutional party, as well as a former well-known state-building entity.

According to the analyst, Abdixhiku’s passing of the motion does not constitute a complete triumph, because the internal conflict has damaged the LDK’s unity and produced visible consequences.

Qarri assessed that Abdixhiku’s political survival after the confidence vote cannot be called a victory. On the contrary, he said, it demonstrates the de facto division of this far from stable political segment, while since that evening the party’s stability and unity have been placed under a dangerous question mark. He asserted that the current chairman will no longer have the support of the dissident wing of the LDK.

He expressed doubt that a party at the peak of its internal crisis can offer a solution to the prolonged political deadlock or have the necessary strength to overcome the institutional crisis. Qarri stressed that a considerable number of LDK deputies, from that evening, will no longer obey Abdixhiku’s demands, who, according to him, now officially remains a contested party leader.

In this situation, Qarri called on Abdixhiku and Vjosa Osmani, who was the first to sincerely congratulate him on the confidence vote result, to do everything possible to coordinate with Prime Minister Kurti. According to him, with the majority of LDK deputies loyal to Abdixhiku, they must cooperate to elect the country’s president and ensure stable institutions and stable governance over the next 4 years.

The analyst declared that such an action would receive broad public support and be remembered positively by the people and all citizens of Kosovo. He underlined that citizens are tired of moving from one round of elections to another, which, besides unnecessary costs, are not solving even the issue of the president.

According to Qarri, the repetition of deadlocks only presents Kosovo to the world as a politically unstable and unsteady state in the Western Balkans and the region.

He said that, for the first time since the voting evening, he would support Abdixhiku if the latter decides to use all his possibilities and, together with the former president, contribute to building institutions and strengthening the stability of the independent state of Kosovo. Qarri recalled that she was the first to congratulate Abdixhiku on passing the test, which, according to him, was imposed almost without any convincing reason by a group of adventurers and destructive elements within the LDK.

However, Qarri warned that Abdixhiku’s reconfirmation may not put an end to the internal conflict in the party.

He expressed fear that what he called the “Pyrrhic victory,” which Abdixhiku “materialized” on the evening of July 30, did not really represent a victory, but marked the concrete start of the real division of the LDK.

According to Qarri, the continuation of Abdixhiku’s mandate as chairman will further deepen internal divisions and sharpen the rifts that have already become public. He said these developments show more clearly than ever the direction taken by the inevitable dissolution of this well-known institutional and former state-building segment in Kosovo.

After reconfirmation at the head of the LDK, Abdixhiku, according to Qarri, must firmly stick to the promises made before the public and act with more rigor than at any other time, in order to expand support within the party and win citizens’ trust.

Qarri also demanded that Abdixhiku, together with former president Vjosa Osmani, do everything he knows and can to form state institutions as quickly as possible. According to him, the LDK leader must not accept being turned into anyone’s “tool” to send the country again to early elections, in service of the petty interests of any other opposition figure.

He assessed that it has been publicly proven that elections are not the formula for overcoming the deadlock. According to Qarri, the solution lies in electing a consensual president, creating stable institutions and ensuring stable governance, which Kosovo and its citizens currently need more than anything else.

In conclusion, Qarri emphasized that the process launched to dismiss Abdixhiku was not necessary, while Kosovo needs the institutional deadlock to end.

He recalled that at the party’s extraordinary assembly on July 30, Abdixhiku successfully passed the motion presented by a group of opponents seeking his removal from the LDK’s head. Immediately after the announcement that he would continue to lead the party, the former president of the country, Ms. Osmani, who was the LDK’s list bearer in the June 7 elections, reacted joyfully, declaring: “Not every victory is ordinary. Some victories become inspiration. This is one of them!”

Qarri argued that Abdixhiku had been confirmed as chairman in January of this year and that, in just a few months, the regular electoral process for selecting the new party leadership would take place. For this reason, according to him, the motion was completely unnecessary, was taken unilaterally and was presented at a very sensitive moment for the country.

In his statement to “Bota sot”, Qarri concluded by saying that after several rounds of elections, Kosovo neither should nor can lose more time. He stressed that the country is impatiently waiting for the constitution of the Assembly of the June 7 legislature, the formation of the new Government, the election of the president and the normal continuation of the political processes of the state of Kosovo.