Recent days have been eventful for the political party Vetëvendosja (VV) in Kosovo. Chairman Visar Ymeri and deputy chairs Dardan Sejdiu and Aida Dërguti resigned, while four deputies were given conditional prison sentences
When VV became the largest party in Parliament during the elections of June 11, 2017, no one could think that half a year later the party would be in crisis as the result of infighting.
For several months now there have been rumors that within VV there were two factions: on the one side former chairman and current deputy Albin Kurti, and on the other the recently resigned chairman Ymeri.
The resignation of Visar Ymeri
On Tuesday, VV chairman Ymeri, who had led the party since March 2o15, resigned from all his positions in the party. In a press conference he calls his resignation an “act of disappointment”:
I am resigning, as an act of disappointment that I have not managed to to stop the backstabbing and gossip that happened in the organization recently. There has been a disregard toward my position and other organs within the movement. I hope that my resignation is understood as alarm, especially for those who have taken part in the backstabbing.
Ymeri’s decision had not been part of earlier discussions within the party. According to political analyst Imer Mushkolaj, Ymeri’s resignation is a clear sign of rift within the party:
The resignation of Ymeri as chairman has definitively shown that VV has divisions and that major rifts are ahead. I expected Ymeri to resign. Everyone who has remained in VV have worked toward this action, and I think he haas done well to withdraw himself, because he’s been only the formal head of the party, while we all know what type of accusations and attacks he has lived through from the supporters of Kurti.
Sentencing of the four deputies
The four VV deputies, Albin Kurti, Albulena Haxhiu, Donika Kadaj, and Fatjon Topalli we convicted by the Basic Court for throwing tear gas in the Parliament, 2 years ago. With their action they tried to block the ratification of the border agreement with Montenegro and the establishment of the Association of Serbian Municipalities in the north of the country.
Visar Ymeri responded to the conviction as follows:
This judgment with these judges is the most credible sample that shows the political dictate over the judicial system. Albin, Albulena, Donika, and Fatjon are representatives of the people in whose name they were punished today. Such as conviction is the most hypocritical act that any local institution has produced so far and as such it is the latest means of persecuting political opponents.
The resignation of Dërguti and Sejdiu
Vice chair Aida Dërguti also resigned earlier this week, announcing her decision through a Facebook post:
Yes, among us there are divisions. This problem which at first sight seems like a personal conflict, is in fact a political and ideological division. Not a division regarding the aims expressed in the program, but especially a division regarding method. And a division on method is a division on politics. You cannot arrive through different roads and methods at the same goal. The method ennobles or corrupts the aim.
Also vice chair Sejdiu resigned, sending a letter to the board and general council of VV, in which he stated that he will not run for any other post within the party but continue his work as deputy and party member.
