Muhaxhiri: High stakes, the election campaign will be dirty

Political analyst from Pristina, Artan Muhaxhiri, points out that due to the drop in popularity of Self-Determination, the stakes are high for the February parliamentary elections in Kosovo, which is why a dirty pre-election campaign can be expected, accompanied by many populist and "pseudo-patriotic" themes and accusations.

"It is evident that Prime Minister Kurti and Self-Determination no longer have the power and support of the people that they had four years ago. This is naturally because power 'consumes' you. There were many promises that were not fulfilled over four years. Therefore, it is expected that they will receive a smaller percentage of the votes on February 9th. However, I think it will be crucial how the opposition parties design their pre-election campaign, how convincing they will be, and how much they will manage to gain the trust of the people. They also have a problem because many people who have been present on the political scene of Kosovo for 20 years find it difficult to build trust," Muhaxhiri told Kosovo Online. He notices that the campaign has started very sharply.

"I think the political discourse will be somewhat dirty because the stakes are high. Opposition parties in Kosovo know that Albin Kurti and Self-Determination are losing support and will try to impose this even more," emphasizes Muhaxhiri.

He believes that Kurti and Self-Determination will counter this with a sharper political discourse.

"They will try to preserve the 50 percent support they currently have. Therefore, there will be many personal attacks. I fear that there will not be many rational political projects and plans for the citizens of Kosovo, but rather a lot of populist themes, many pseudo-patriotic themes, and accusations of who is a traitor and who loves Kosovo. Therefore, I think it will be a very tough political campaign," emphasizes Muhaxhiri.

Regarding the Serbian political scene, he does not expect major changes and predicts that the Serb List will take the largest number of votes.

"There won't be big changes, although I think it would be very good if there was an alternative to the Serb List. In this way, democracy among the Serbian community in Kosovo develops. However, I think that the Serb List, due to its current structure and situation, and especially due to events in the last two years, will try to politically profit from patriotic emotions and present themselves as the only ones who can defend the Serbian population in Kosovo," said Muhaxhiri.