Saranda Imeri Stafai responds to Bujar Osmani: Albanian legitimacy is won through votes; it does not belong to DUI

VLEN MP Saranda Imeri Stafai has responded to remarks by Bujar Osmani of DUI, who, in a lengthy post, criticized VLEN’s functioning and claimed that the structure had become an institutional mechanism for policies with a Macedonian character.

According to Stafai, Osmani is interpreting political cooperation as a sign of weakness. She said that forming alliances among political forces to bring about change is a common and legitimate action in a democratic system.

“Bujar, your problem is that you are trying to sell political cooperation as weakness, whereas in a democracy, joining forces to bring about change is called a political mandate,” Stafai wrote.

She recalled that VLEN was founded through the unification of Albanian forces with the clear aim of ending DUI’s years-long monopoly and bringing change to the political scene.

Stafai described Osmani’s criticism of VLEN’s cooperation with VMRO-DPMNE as contradictory, stressing that DUI had also governed for a long period in a coalition with Macedonian parties.

“Cooperation is not treason when DUI does it, but apparently it is dependence when others do it,” the VLEN MP said.

She went on to mention several issues for which Bujar Osmani has been criticized during his political and diplomatic career. Among them, Stafai listed the nine-point plan for Kosovo presented by Osmani when he was head of the OSCE, as well as the hosting in Skopje of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during the OSCE summit.

“And today he lectures us about the ‘Serbian threat’ and VLEN’s orientation?” she wrote.

The VLEN MP also accused DUI of moving closer to Belgrade while the party was in power. In this context, she also mentioned Ali Ahmeti’s meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

Stafai said that VLEN does not present itself as a flawless force, but that its duty is to govern, achieve results and correct the mistakes that have been made.

“VLEN does not need to be perfect. It needs to govern, deliver results and correct its mistakes,” she stressed.

At the conclusion of her response, Stafai accused DUI of continuing to claim that it is the only political force entitled to speak on behalf of Albanians.

“Albanian legitimacy is not the property of DUI. Nor is it Ali Ahmeti’s political inheritance. Albanians grant legitimacy through their vote. And this time, Albanians spoke,” the VLEN MP said.

The response ended with a direct attack on Osmani, to whom Stafai referred in connection with his result in the local elections: “And finally, you are the last person who can speak, having lost without a runoff.”

In a postscript, she mocked Osmani with the phrase: “Bujar of PDSH!”