Summary of the Week 90

From a vicious circle into a dead-end labyrinth. That, roughly speaking, is what moving from one week to the next—or from one year to another—looks like in Kosovo. It is little comfort, but the world itself has no answers to new dilemmas either, and everyone is, in fact, hoping that the question will not be put to them at all. Who offered answers this week, and who tried to avoid them?

We have already grown accustomed to the fact that the search for a way out of the whirlpool often only creates new waves. That is why it is now considered a success when, after dialogue, positions are at least no further apart than before. There have been some steps forward after this week’s talks in Brussels, but not much optimism.

The director of the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund, Bekim Blakaj, explains:

“We have had the opportunity many times before to be disappointed by events and agreements that were not implemented in practice.”

The vicious circle in practice—campaigning, voting, counting—apparently was not closed in the previous year. With some steps skipped, the adventure continues.

“A repeat of the vote count,” comments Stefan Surlic from the Faculty of Political Sciences.

“It is more about complying with legal and technical procedures. Essentially, the election results are clear and will not change,” Surlic says.

Some elections are clear, while some tasks remain unsolvable. A way out of the labyrinth of complaints and decisions has not yet been found. Whether the Constitutional Court is even looking for it is unknown.

“If, for example, the Constitutional Court were to accept the previous appeal—that is, respond to the appeal of the Serb List—that would mean that Nenad Rasic was never elected Speaker of the Assembly. Consequently, the Assembly would not have been constituted. Vjosa Osmani would not have been able to grant a mandate to form a government, and elections could not have been called. All of those actions would then be invalid,” political scientist Ognjen Gogic explains, describing the kind of ‘vicious loop’ into which both politicians and the public as a whole could fall.

Escaping some other global whirlpools has also been difficult these days. Because, for example, when it comes to Greenland, no answer is the right one.

“In cases like this,” advises Professor Nexhmedin Spahiu, “silence is the best option.”

When people do speak, however, every letter is weighed. Every word is a potential boomerang. Whether there is room to untangle the global knot at this moment is something few know.

“Most likely, this year we will witness several events that we are not accustomed to seeing or hearing about. Precisely because a new order of world geography is emerging, and we do not know what it will look like,” says Agim Shahini of the Kosovo Business Alliance.

Some would rather close their eyes to the unknown; others would prefer to embellish it. However, when reality is this murky, neither rose-tinted nor any other glasses can change it—regardless of who is wearing them.