ASAP

What European leaders don't understand will all the begging for more time to resolve the status is that everything is virtually on hold in Kosovo while this circus is going on. It is the lower strata of society that are having to sacrifice to keep this semblance of peace for the sake of Kosovo's future. Kosovo needs deep political reforms ASAP, but this small, young and vulnerable country can't fight two battles at the same time. As is the case in Kosovo, the price has been paid by the destitute: people like the 2,000 families in the Gjakova region who never had their burnt homes rebuilt but you barely heard of it in the first eight years. See, economy doesn't grow on trees, and it grows even less under circumstances in which Kosovo is now. There is lot of discontent simmering under the surface, waiting to explode once we are relieved of the patriotic cover or before that if the cover stays on for much longer. The longer the status resolution takes, the bigger this after-status explosion will be.

People are full of cynicism, so much so that political discussion is unbearable anymore. It will be interesting to see the level of participation in the forthcoming elections in November and the uphill battle those politicians will be facing with a disillusioned electorate

Whereas the proposed party lists will bring new blood and some genuinely good people to politics, the incoming elected officials will have to prove themselves fast. Reformist Party ORA and even more so PDK have made amazing changes to their ranks. I still have doubts about some of the people representing PDK, but with the open lists Kosovars this time can as well skip the bad apples. New this time is also Behxhet Pacolli, a Swiss-Albanian billionaire whose not-so-impressive-but-likely-to-score party will stand for elections for the first time. LDD of course has split from and weakened LDK, breaking a cesspool into two.

The other issue is the short time allotted to the campaigns to run. So while I am happy of the choices offered, I'm pessimistic that issues will be presented much once again. Luckily, this time status is not one the issues parties can profit on. But then again there is very little time to talk about the myriad of things that plague Kosovo.

 

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