Property list of ministers: Where did so many rich people come from in Kurti's government?

According to the property list that public officials are required to report to the Agency for Combating Corruption in the Government of Kosovo, there are a large number of rich people. The interlocutors of Kosovo Online believe that the source of wealth is corruption, emphasizing on the other hand that there is no evidence for this, and that the judicial authorities must deal with the issue.

Cash, luxury cars, several real estates whose values range up to half a million euros, bars, land, all this is owned by the ministers, the prime minister, the president, as well as other Kosovo officials.

One of the wealthiest officials in Kosovo is President Vjosa Osmani, who reported to the Anti-Corruption Agency that she owns an apartment, three houses with a total value of 770,000 euros, and 330,000 euros in savings, but also a debt of 150,000 euros.

The president of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, is the richest among officials, and he reported that he owns three houses, as well as a villa and another house jointly owned by his wife. He also stated that he also owns land, and he bought only one property with the loan.

Haradinaj further declared a BMW car worth 8,000 euros owned by his wife and a Cadillac worth 19,000 euros owned by him, as well as a 50 percent share in the company.

People get rich in power

Professor of constitutional law and analyst Mazlum Baraliu pointed out that, with the change of government, anonymous personalities come to important positions, and as he stated, in the meantime, they get rich with the help of corruption.

"In general, in this government, as in the previous ones, and outside of the Blakans, even in consolidated countries that have a consolidated democracy, there are politicians, but also the business elite, who have a lot of millions in their accounts," said Baraliu.

He emphasized that getting rich after coming to power is obviously possible, but that there is no transparency for this.

"Speaking in principle, not to mention names and surnames, I don't know where so many rich people come from, but the factual situation is that people who are not known to the public, who are not so rich, but are getting rich in the meantime, come to the departments of every government in Kosovo. This is something that we know on the basis of vulnerable sources of information both inside and outside the country. This means that something is wrong somewhere, and that is corruption, or improper, that is, unsustainable enrichment. Government and politics enriches people, transparently or indiscriminately, and that is a fact, it is reality, and our image, which is unfortunate," says Braliu.

As he stated, there are also such indications with the Government of Albin Kurti.

"And it's not only ministers, but also ambassadors. We have the ambassador of Kosovo in Croatia, whom the press in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania write about as having some corporate structures, it is said loud and clear that there are certain speculations with money that are not of a very good nature, but nothing happens," Braliu added.

According to him, there has always been corruption, but Self-Determination promised not to allow unjust enrichment.

"Neither are other political parties holy, but in respect to Self-Determination, more or less, some actions are coming to light that do not befit the ruling party, and they promised that everything would be honey and milk, now we see that it is not like that," concluded Baraliu.

Politics as the best business

Kosovo analyst Blerim Burjani believes that the answer to the question of where the Kosovo officials got so much money from should be given by law and order authorities.

As he stated, the inspection of the property by the competent authorities would determine whether the officials got rich in an illegal way.

"There must be a verification of the property, until then nothing can be said. It is necessary to do a check to see if there are facts about corruption and other illegal actions," said Burjani.

According to him, it is known that there are suspicions of corruption and illegal actions regarding the current government, but so far no evidence has been provided for this.

"Corruption cannot be stopped with words, politics in Kosovo, as everywhere in the Balkans, is a type of the best business," said Burjani.

He pointed out that corruption has been very present in Kosovo for many years.

"The competent authorities have made little effort to stop political corruption. Political corruption, nepotism is the biggest problem in Kosovo," Burjani concluded.