Summary of the Week 88

Some wishes needed more than a whole year and still went unfulfilled, while others came true just before the fireworks. And while a compilation of unrealized plans can be depressing, other people’s wishes can sometimes be frightening. What do we wish for in the New Year—and whose wishes do we fear?

Nothing for an entire year, and then everything in a single week. Fireworks and victory. Tears and celebration. Wishes that have waited a long time to be fulfilled.

“The biggest wish that came true for me this year,” one Pristina resident tells Kosovo Online, “is that Albin Kurti won the elections.”

In the final week of the year, we were also reminded of wishes whose fulfillment many have long feared.

“Serbs may be awaiting the election results with a sense of anxiety, because Kurti has never even hinted that he would change his attitude toward the Serbian community,” says political scientist Ognjen Gogic.
Some ask from those in power, others from Santa Claus. The wishes are modest and have been the same for years. Whoever fulfills them first.

“Peace and security above all,” residents of northern Kosovo sum up the prevailing hope. “As for the rest,” says one resident of Mitrovica, “we already have everything.”

That nothing needs to be changed—and that everything is already in place—seems to have been the assessment of those whose mandate was to bring change. To fix things. The mandate has been extended; so have their wishes.

“Sørensen couldn’t do much here,” summarizes the outgoing mandate of the dialogue mediator, Slobodan Zecevic from the Institute for European Studies. “He could either have pushed for stronger sanctions against Kosovo or demanded the formation of the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities,” he explains.

Some wishes are unrealistic, and some realities are unwelcome. Still, it is good to know at the very beginning of the year what is possible—whether we like it or not.

“There is a strong likelihood that in April we could see new, third parliamentary elections within a year and a half,” analyst Dusan Radakovic reminds us.

For the tired and the disappointed alike, the New Year has arrived for everyone. For those with big wishes and for those without ambitions. For those who deserved it and for those who rushed it. It arrived exactly when it wanted to.