Summary of the Week 70

Vote after vote, arrest after arrest, a cycle of expectations followed by disappointment. Even the most patient have long since stopped hoping that a new week will bring stability or summer peace in Kosovo.

Some waited patiently, others nervously, and some resorted to extreme methods — all endured both the initial and extended deadlines for the formation of the Assembly. By all accounts, the existing methods are no longer sufficient.

“If new elections are held, the President should say who is to blame — whether it’s the opposition or Kurti. And the people should know who to vote for and who to punish,” explains Agim Shahini from the Kosovo Business Alliance for Kosovo Online.

That the authorities are impatient to punish became apparent this week as well. For now, in the case of Igor Popovic, it matters little who the victim is, who the culprit is, or who insulted whom — and how.

His lawyer, Ljubomir Pantovic, says: “Unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where you can't say anything that the local public doesn't like.”

“Patience means salvation,” has become the prevailing logic — even if not chosen — on which survival and freedom now depend.

“Well, he’s been placed in that prison, he’s not complaining,” says Igor Popovic’s father after visiting his son in jail. “They’re treating him correctly there, he’s received his usual therapy, and he’s holding up well,” says Petar Popovic.

He is not an exception — but for those still awaiting their verdict, that’s neither justification nor comfort. They wait patiently, because they have no alternative.

Both legal experts and ordinary citizens know how things should be.

“In every democratic society, you have the right to question all issues,” lawyer Milan Antonijevic tells Kosovo Online.

In societies where everything is already problematic, new problems are swept off the horizon. Broken ties are patiently repaired, and the cost of building new ones is never questioned. That has been evident in all recent plans involving Kosovo and the United States.

“Trump imposed a very simple agenda: trade and deal-making,” explains Petar Donic of the New Third Way, referring to what Kosovo politicians have come to recognize.

A deal — like a victory — is sweetest at the last moment. That is why, in recent months, many have given their all — at first patiently, then more vocally — to make it happen. Among them are foreign diplomats in Pristina. Hence the growing disappointment.

“We came here with great hope,” said the head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Aivo Orav, after one of the most recent failed parliamentary sessions.

Now comes a new deadline — time to recover from lost hope. From the judges — this time Constitutional ones — came the extensions. But they say these are the last, because even they have run out of patience.