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18:30 POLITICS

Meeting in Shkodra/ Rama "provokes" protesters, wears a flamingo T-shirt

Prime Minister Edi Rama is in the city of Shkodra this Mon...

By Andi Bushati/ How Rama can help Kurti

2023-06-14 18:36:00, Opinione Andi Bushati

By Andi Bushati/ How Rama can help Kurti

Analyst Andi Bushati

The brutal cancellation of the meeting between the two governments, that of Tirana and Pristina, at the last moment, was sold as a cry of desperation by Edi Rama, to save Albin Kurti, and with him also Kosovo from an unprecedented international punishment. The Prime Minister asserted that it did not make sense that, in the conditions of a deep crisis with our Western allies, the two governments would hold a propaganda parade, to create "a false mirror", in relation to the threat of sanctions that were facing Kuri. like the sword of Democles over the head. He said that the agreements in agriculture and breeding could wait, but the emergency crisis was by no means...

So, the simple question that arises after listening to these arguments is how could Edi Rama help Albin? What could he say more than Escobar, Lajcak or Borelli? What tool does he have in his hands that Brussels or Washington do not have? How could he convince him to release more of Vucic's thugs in the north, or to sign a more favorable association model for Serbs, when Albin Kurti is hearing this refrain every day from the centers of world politics?

Hard to imagine that the head of our government has a magic wand in his hands that we don't know about. But even if we want to believe in this ability to produce miracles, why didn't Rama exercise it? Why did he not accept the counter-proposal of the Kosovar counterpart, that they hold one after the other the close meeting, to solve the crisis and the big one foreseen for the meeting between the two governments?

If there was a minimal opportunity to give support he should try it at any cost.

These hypotheses have a simple explanation. Rama wanted the cancellation and not the meeting. He boycotted the planned meeting of this Wednesday, not to help him, but to hit Albini.

The message he gave is clear: " with Kurt it is impossible to argue, negotiate and understand each other, that's why we couldn't be together".

Unfortunately, it is the same refrain that has been repeated for some time by Aleksandar Vucic. Even the Serbian president does not miss an opportunity to say that compromise, with an extremist at the head of the Pristina government, is impossible.

So, for the same or different reasons, both in Belgrade and in Tirana, they are seeking, in the most fortunate case, the elimination of Albini from the stage, and in the minimal scenario, the diminution of his negotiating power.

This second tendency, i.e. the role of Rama to weaken the stubborn resistance of the leader of Vetvendosje, is also clearly seen in the apocalyptic notes with which he paints the current crisis. If you observe the Prime Minister's vocabulary at the press conference, where he announced the boycott of the bilateral meeting, it was scary. He spoke about Kosovo's dramatic break with the West, about a collision course with the allies, about wearing out their patience, about the consequences of a long-term damage, and even went so far as to blame Albin Kurti for spoiling the image of the entire Albanian nation.

If we compare this description of the situation compared to what even the bravest Western allies do, Rama's vocabulary is far more whipping and harsh towards his Kosovar counterpart. The goal is still the same. The weakening of Kurt's negotiating power in front of Serbia. And there is no better way to attempt this than creating an imaginary gololi, more extreme than the punishments that will await Pristina, if it does not decide to answer with "Yes" to the requests of the internationals to make concessions to Vucic. Everyone understands, Rama the first, that a leader facing public pressure can retreat more easily. This is precisely what he is trying to achieve with the alarmist tones and the drastic acts he has undertaken.

The only thing where the Albanian prime minister is right is the finding that the current situation has created a crisis or a crisis (not at all with the hyperbolization he describes), between her allies and the Kurti government. But in this crisis, the role of the head of the Albanian government is close to zero, even if he had pure intentions to help.

The only person who has the solution in hand is Albin Kurti. He can either withdraw by giving the liberators of Kosovo the favors they ask for in the name of Vu?i?, or he can answer them with an emphatic "No", causing a crisis. In this case, based on the weight or depth of the sanctions that could come, he would be forced to provoke early elections to measure the legitimacy of the new decisions, which were not voted on two years ago. And so he could also give Edi Rama an opportunity: to get involved in the electoral campaign along with those forces that have proven in the past that they are more inclined to make concessions to Serbia. But, even here, it would not be Edi who would help Albini, but the latter who would offer Rama the opportunity to do the politics he wants.