Gogic: Kurti would rather go to new elections than pander to the opposition

Political scientist Ognjen Gogic told Kosovo Online that it can be assumed that Albin Kurti would be interested in Kosovo electing a president in March, avoiding the dissolution of the Assembly and new elections, but that this does not mean he would be willing to make any concessions to the opposition. He adds that he is not someone who would pander to the opposition, but would rather accept going to new elections.

According to Gogic, Kurti will leave it to the opposition to decide for itself what is more worthwhile for it, whether to bring down the government by denying a quorum for the election of the president or to be constructive and allow a president to be elected.

As he says, both Kurti and everyone else are aware that the opposition spent the previous year calculating and maneuvering and that it overplayed its hand.

“They have already made mistakes in assessing that elections would work in their favor, and now the question is whether they would make the same mistake again. If they were now to bring down the government by denying a quorum, public anger would be directed at them and they would be accused of being losers who cannot accept defeat and of causing a new crisis in Kosovo. They now need to think carefully about what is better for them. Whether to go to new elections, in which they do not know how they would fare because they have so far misjudged things, or to come to terms with the reality that Kurti will have a stable majority for four years and seek their chance only after those four years,” Gogic says.

In his view, Kurti would not mind going to new elections because it suits him to run Kosovo as a caretaker prime minister, and he is also convinced that he would win again and once more hold the cards to form a new government.

“He is not in a situation where he has to beg the opposition at all costs to give him a quorum for the election of the president,” he emphasizes.

For Kurti, he adds, it matters who the president will be, and the only factor influencing whom he will support as a candidate is whether he sees that person as a threat.

“If he were to give up supporting Osmani, which could happen, that would not be an act of concession to the opposition, but rather an assessment that she is a risk for him because her ties in America are extremely strong and she is a threat to him. When she completes her five year term, as a young person in politics she will be interested in other positions in the executive branch. So for him the question is whether Osmani is a greater threat, politically speaking, as president of Kosovo in the next term or as someone who would go into the opposition, and that will determine who the presidential candidate will be,” Gogic believes.

Kurti, he says, could also opt for a candidate who would be described as a unifying figure and someone uncontroversial, but that would not be the real motive.

“The reason would be that there would be no rival. He could carry out a maneuver and, for example, accept an opposition candidate, but that would not be because he wanted to contribute to easing tensions, but because he would not see that person as a threat,” Gogic concludes.