Kosovo Opposition Bed Down in Tent Protest

Members of Kosovo’s opposition coalition are bedding down in central Pristina across the way from the government in support of their on-going demand for early elections.

“Protesters at Pristina’s Skanderbeg Square on Tuesday | Photo: BIRN/ Valerie Hopkins.

Opposition activists and politicians set up tents in the square opposite the government building in Pristina on the night before parliament – interrupted last Friday by tear gas three times – was due to resume work on Wednesday.

At dusk, some 30 tents, including almost ten with a capacity of 10 to 40 people, were set up in the city’s Skanderbeg Square.

“The opposition is maintaining Kosovo’s democracy,” Vetevendosje politician Albin Kurti claimed. “It is clear that [the government’s] plan is to go from an authoritarian towards a totalitarian regime.”

Kurti said he planned to sleep with the protesters in one of the tents on Tuesday night.

The action came as parliuament prepared to resume its work, including on the election of a President of Kosovo. The assembly is expected to elect a new head of state within ten days.

After opposition MPs were barred from parliament last Friday, Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the Alliance for Kosovo’s Future, AAK, resigned his seat, vowing to continue his protests outside.

“This starts an epoch of continuous and permanent opposition,” he said of the protests on Skanderbeg Square.

Kurti also vowed to continue supporting the protests against the government’s controversial agreements with Serbia and Montenegro, one on the establishment of an autonomous Association of Serbian Municipalities and the other on border demarcation with Montenegro.

“This is a protest against the normalization of the Serbian Association in Kosovo,” he said, using the Serbian word for the Association, “Zajednica”.

“We are against the Bosnia-ization of Kosovo,” Kurti added, referring to fears expressed in Kosovo that the country could end up effectively partitioned on ethnic lines.

He made it clear that the opposition’s tear gas tactics would continue. “We have plenty of tear gas because the police have thrown so much at us,” he said.

Kurti attended the evening protest after appearing in court in the morning on charges of setting off tear gas in parliament on December 23.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, led by former Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, plans to host an event in parliament in support his bid for the Presidency of Kosovo.

He needs 80 out of 120 votes of the assembly to be elected.

Opposition activists say they are determined to ensure that does not happen.

“We are staying here to oppose the election of the President,” said Etleva Malushaj, a Vetevendosje movement activist said. “We will stay here until the government goes.”