Savic: Ethnonationalist narrative of Self-Determination Movement prevailed among diaspora voters

Zoran Savic, an associate of the NGO Aktiv, says that the diaspora from the Western Balkans almost always votes for ruling parties in elections and that among Albanians from Kosovo living abroad, the ethnonationalist narrative of the Self-Determination Movement dominated during the pre-election campaign.

"I am not surprised that the diaspora votes for the ruling party because, when we look at electoral processes, it has somehow become normal across the Western Balkans that the diaspora votes for ruling parties in almost 98% of cases. This may be due to the way information is presented in the countries where, in this case, Kosovo citizens live and how they receive their information," Savic stated for Kosovo Online.

All Albanian parties were active in the pre-election campaign within the diaspora, but Self-Determination and Albin Kurti were the most active, having started their campaign long before the official election period began.

"Self-Determination ran a campaign two years before the official start of the pre-election campaign. The entire focus was on the north, emphasizing how they had ‘won the north’ and expanded Kosovo’s sovereignty. The diaspora received that message as well. I am not even sure how much the diaspora actually engages with Kosovo's internal political issues, so I believe that, unfortunately, populism once again prevailed among diaspora voters," Savic said.

He is convinced that Self-Determination received the majority of diaspora votes thanks to its ethnonationalist pre-election narrative. However, he questions whether those living abroad were properly informed about the full range of political options.

For this reason, he shares the opinion of Social Democratic Party representative Nol Nishi, who argues that "whoever wins in television propaganda wins the elections."

"Everything depends on how the diaspora gets its information, whether only through television content, and it also depends on the age of that population. So I agree with that view. In previous election processes in the Western Balkans, unfortunately, the populist narrative has always prevailed," Savic concluded.