Veljko Nestorović of Kosovo Online asked:
Q: Is it possible to get your answer to the question before the elections
in Kosovo, why at the moment there is no party (like URA in Montenegro
with Dritan Abazovic) civic options where Albanians and Serbs and
everyone else are represented, but all parties ethnically exclusive?
Is it necessary for Kosovo to “get a civic party” in order for democracy
in Kosovo to take an upward path?
I answered:
A: I would certainly like to see a civic option of the sort you
suggest, but it is difficult in a society where people are largely
segregated and ethnic identity overemphasized. The establishments in
both Pristina and Belgrade would see such an alternative as a threat.
But that is no reason for it not to happen!
Note: I did not comment on Abazovic at all. I commented on a civic alternative in Kosovo, which I would welcome. In retrospect, I should have added “I will not comment on Abazovic,” but it seems clear to me that was the case. The press that suggests I expressed approval of Abazovic is certainly distorting what I said and meant. I said nothing about him.
A war criminal can die, while the ideology that made him a hero survives. That…
We are witnessing a new variation on Milan Kundera’s famous *The Joke*: “Optimism is opium…
It is high time to get on with the serious business of governing, which includes…
Belgrade talks the talk, takes the EU money, and does nearly nothing. It is time…
Allowing the powers that be in the region to reach their own equilibrium, with US…
Trump has promised an agreement with Iran that can't be reached while Iran and Oman…