Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has slammed Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani for allegedly bringing issues of her country’s domestic politics to Albania.
Osmani publicly asked the Albanian parliament to pass a resolution to condemn Serbia’s genocide in Kosovo, and for the government to remove the toll on the highway connecting the to countries. Rama left the parliament before Osmani’s speech.
Vetevendosje’s Tirana branch has presented the Albanian parliament with a draft resolution condemning the Serbian genocide in Kosovo, but it’s fate still remains unclear.
Responding to journalists’ questions during a press conference on Thursday, Rama saidthat his “Socialist Party has passed fifteen resolutions […] to condemn the genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacres.”
“The history of Kosovo’s war for freedom, in Kosovo and Albania, does not begin with Acting President Vjosa Osmani, nor with Prime Minister in waiting Albin Kurti,” he slammed at both leaders.
Rama blamed Osmani for making a “mistake” by bringing the issue of condemning the Serbian genocide – an allegedly domestic politics issues of Kosovo – to international relations with Albania.
“In this case it is not that we have problems, we have no problems with Kosovo. Unfortunately, Kosovo has problems with itself, and if I can make a concise definition of the problem I see there, it is that for some time now domestic politics has become foreign policy and vice versa,” he said.
The prime minister stressed that “vulgar national-folkloric” statements won’t help anyone win political battles.
Rama added that Osmani’s request for the removal of the road toll is “grotesque”, and accused her of doing politics in Albania to win votes in Kosovo.
He said the toll is imposed by the Albanian government on an Albanian road, and Osmani “came to Tirana to do propaganda to win votes in Kosovo with an absurd demagoguery and rhetoric.”
