Unlike the campaign for the presidential election, Kurti has been cautious in this campaign. At least so far.
Author: Xhelal Neziri
At the end of the speech on the 15th birthday of Vetëvendosje Movement, its leader Albin Kurti officially revealed his ambitions for his political project to be non-Albanian. In a public demonstration held on June 12, which resembled a protest, Kurti warned of the formation of subjects with the same logo in northern Macedonia and Albania.
While in Tirana the leader is expected to be Boiken Abazi, who also addressed the audience, VV in Skopje is warned to be led by Blerim Reka, former RMV ambassador and former deputy prime minister of Kosovo.
KURTI-SELA RELATION
Last year, Reka became an independent candidate for president of the state of North Macedonia, which was later supported by the Alliance for Albanians (ASH) of Ziadin Sela and BESA of Bilall Kasami. Kurti also took part in his campaign along with other senior VV officials. This coalition was presented as a prelude to the unification of the Albanian opposition, a coalition that would be balanced by Reka. The election result did not seem to be what was expected – Reka, although the only Albanian candidate, received only 80,000 of the 250,000 votes usually received by Albanian parties.
After the presidential election, Reka moved to Kosovo, where during the campaign he was Kurti’s right-hand man, and after the election – Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration. The Albanian opposition in the RMV failed to maintain unity due to the lack of a high profile politician, with unifying skills, as Reka can be described. Today, on the eve of the July 15 snap-election in RMV, the opposition ASH and BESA formed coalitions separately with two governing parties – the first with Afrim Gashi’s Alternative and the second with Zoran Zaev’s SDSM.
Kurti’s announcement that it will be extended to RMV comes at a time when coalitions have been formed, and the lists of candidates for MPs have been verified by the State Election Commission (SEC). So there is no time to run in this election. What he can do now is disorient the Albanian opposition voter. This is because it sends a signal that the opposition led by Sela has failed to do its job properly.
Meanwhile, Sela openly supported the October elections in Kosovo last year, where he strongly supported Kurti. In a FB post, he openly supported Kurti as a candidate for prime minister.
“Albanians in Kosovo in the October 6 elections are in front of the opportunity to bring change, to make Kosovo freer, more democratic, fairer, and more normal. I have no dilemma that Albin Kurti and Vetvendosje can offer Kosovo (and not only) much more than what I have written above, but this is not in Albin’s hands anymore. It is up to you to support him on October 6, “Sela wrote.
Unlike the campaign for the presidential election, Kurti has been cautious in this campaign. At least so far.
CROSS-BORDER PARTY
In fact, since the appearance of the LVV on the public and then the political scene of Kosovo, this subject has always aspired to have supporters and militants even outside the state border where it is registered. Kurti has often been seen holding meetings and protests in Albanian-populated regions of northern Macedonia, or supporting political movements in Albania.
He has supported, and even participated in, the protests of ethnic Albanians organized in Northern Macedonia before 2016, after which two new parties were born – BESA and ASH.
It is not only Kurti who has activities beyond the borders of Kosovo. Such collaborations are known even earlier, such as in the 2008 elections, when Hashim Thaçi’s PDK openly supported Menduh Thaçi’s DPA, while Ramush Haradinaj’s AAK gave full support to the DUI. of Ali Ahmeti. After 2011 these alliances changed – Ahmeti approached Thaçi of Kosovo and Thaçi of North Macedonia with Haradinaj.
However, what VV aspires to achieve is the installation of a movement with the same platform and ideology as that of VV in North Macedonia, which would run in the next parliamentary elections.
IS THIS A KNOWN PRACTICE IN THE WORLD?
Many questions arise from these cross-border political movements. However, cases of transnational parties are well known in the world, especially in Europe, but they are based on ideological closeness, not ethnicity.
Transnational parties are political entities that have members and run in parliamentary elections in more than one state. The “List for Cyprus” party (Cipras List) won two seats in the last elections in Italy, while it was founded with the support of the Greek party SYRIZA of the former Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras.
Ireland’s four parties – the Green Party, Shin Fein, the People before Profit and the Labor Party – are parties that are also running for the Northern Ireland Parliament, as a state that is part of the United Kingdom.
At the level of elections for the European Union (EU) Parliament, there are 11 European political parties organized based on the values they represent and stem from the ideological profiling of political groups in the 28 member states of the Union. The high turnout in the last EU parliamentary elections has further encouraged the formation of transnational parties.
Globally, there is a transnational party, the Muslim Brotherhood, or Muslim Brotherhood, which seeks to bring democracy to life in a religious environment, which is not the case in Western democracies.