Shahini: No serious talks on presidential election, political grudges should be put aside

President of the Kosovo Business Alliance Agim Shahini stressed that politicians in Kosovo have shown no interest in the people and that they should put aside political grudges and divisions when it comes to electing the president.

“Our politicians, as they have shown so far, are not interested in the people and the state as much as they are in their personal interests. They should put aside political grudges and divisions. We must stand together, all parties, especially in democratic states, because no party in Kosovo has a sufficient majority to elect a president. The president should come from an opposition party, for the sake of better democracy. One party should not hold all positions in a state, in this case the Self-Determination Movement,” Shahini told Kosovo Online.

Shahini believes that support for the proposed amendments to the Law on the Kosovo Specialist Chambers should not be made conditional on votes for the election of the president of Kosovo.

“Those are two different things, there should be no conditions. This shows how immature our politicians are if they are really making such demands of one another. We need to elect a strong president, someone who has open doors in the European Union and throughout the world, who should remove all the obstacles we have created recently and move Kosovo forward, because Kosovo has fallen behind the other countries in the Balkans,” he said.

Shahini believes that Kosovo does not need the expense of new elections and that, if they do take place, citizens should think carefully about whom they give their vote to.

“I do not think we should go to new elections. We will incur significant costs, while leaving all the important and urgent reforms and laws unfinished. Institutions will not be operational for months after the elections. But, as far as I can see, there are no serious talks about electing a president. If politicians cannot reach an agreement, then all voters should think carefully about who they vote for,” our interlocutor said.

Shahini stressed that Kosovo has already been without functioning institutions for two years, which has resulted in the loss of funds from the Growth Plan, under which Kosovo has so far received only seven percent of the 882 million euros allocated.