Kosovo’s ‘Albanian Spring’ Has Succumbed to Early Frost

All that remained for citizens to make their voices heard was to express their displeasure at the political tragedy by banging pots and pans from their balconies in the evening during the partial lockdown.

Good intentions, bad performance:

Ramush Haradinaj in Pristina, Kosovo, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

Having embarked on a programme to establish the rule of law, improve the economic and social situation and declare war on corruption, the governing coalition set great hopes in motion.

Decisions, such as withdrawing the doubling of salaries of top officials, which Ramush Haradinaj introduced in December 2017, or deciding to dismiss the board of directors of Telecom and review infrastructure projects, were pioneering and promising.

But big problems quickly became apparent. It was clear that the fight against the endemic corruption that permeates the administration and political institutions would be difficult. And for all of Kurti's verve and creative will, he was probably carried by overconfidence, which led to some unforgivable mistakes.

This includes the way that, just when the population in the coronavirus crisis needed the protection of the government, a power struggle between him and President Thaci, and between him and his LDK coalition partners resulted in confusing instructions to the population as to what rules and measures will be taken to prevent the virus from spreading.

One might cite his inexperience in running a government as an excuse, but when the health and safety of citizens is at stake, personal or party-political disputes have to be put aside in the service of the country - as the example of many other countries, like Germany, shows.

It must have been clear to Kurti...

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