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The Swiss SP and its co-leader Cédric Wermuth have long been friends with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his Vetevendosje party.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti (47), announced it in an interview with Blick: his party Vetevendosje (self-determination) and the SP want to support each other in the election campaign. A declaration of intent and cooperation with the SP for 2023 to 2025 is to be signed on Thursday, said Kurti. This year there are elections in Switzerland, in 2025 in Kosovo.
“We want to help each other with campaigns,” said Kurti. The goal is for both parties to gain strength. They belong to the same ideological family and many Kosovars in Switzerland are members of both parties. In addition, Cédric Wermuth (36), co-president of SP Switzerland, is a good friend of his.
Tear gas petards and war crimes
This partnership is not without controversy. Because: Vetvendosje’s past is not unproblematic. Initially the party had the nationalist vision of a Greater Albania consisting of Kosovo and Albania. Vetevendosje deputies have previously set off tear gas petards in parliament. And party leader Kurti is repeatedly criticized for his authoritarian leadership style.
From political prisoner to prime minister
Albin Kurti (47) has been Prime Minister of Kosovo since 2021. His party Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! («Movement self-determination!») is considered progressive and left-wing. Kurti was born in Pristina, joined the Kosovo Liberation Army UCK in 1997. In 1999 he was arrested and imprisoned by the Serbian police during the Kosovo War. After his release, he founded his party in 2005. In 2010, she took part in the parliamentary elections for the first time and was immediately the third strongest party. Kurti is married to a Norwegian political scientist and they have a daughter.
Albin Kurti (47) has been Prime Minister of Kosovo since 2021. His party Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! («Movement self-determination!») is considered progressive and left-wing. Kurti was born in Pristina, joined the Kosovo Liberation Army UCK in 1997. In 1999 he was arrested and imprisoned by the Serbian police during the Kosovo War. After his release, he founded his party in 2005. In 2010, she took part in the parliamentary elections for the first time and was immediately the third strongest party. Kurti is married to a Norwegian political scientist and they have a daughter.
In addition, Rexhep Selimi, a former party MP, is on trial in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Kosovo war. The trial of Selimi is scheduled to start this year.
Vetevendosje “really cleaned up”
The SP is of course aware that the difficult issues cannot be overlooked, says Nicolas Häsler, the party’s media spokesman. But one sees the path of Vetevendosje in recent years very positively. “The party has really cleaned up, for example with regard to the nationalist votes,” says Häsler. As far as he knows, Selimi is no longer part of the party.
The country has a very eventful history and the political system is still very young. So if you can make a contribution to stabilization, then the SP wants to do it – hence the cooperation.
The potential votes for the SP from the Kosovan community should play a role in the considerations of cooperation. The fact that SP and Vetevendosje are teaming up for the election campaign is nothing new. The two parties have appeared together in the past and made mutual recommendations for elections.
The Last Partnership
In an open letter to the Kosovars in Switzerland, the SP 2021 campaigned. “Vetevendosje stands for justice, democracy and the rule of law,” the letter said. It also referred to the Kosovo Special Tribunal of the International Court of Justice, which had to do its work “without question”.
“Either we are committed to real perspectives for the people on site, or they will apply for asylum with us in the next few years because of poverty and unemployment,” Wermuth justified the cooperation in the “NZZ am Sonntag”. And in his eyes, the most credible force in the country for this is Vetevendosje.
The beginning of friendship
The cooperation between the two parties began after the former political prisoner Kurti took part in the elections in Kosovo for the first time in 2010 with his party Vetevendosje. And all of a sudden they became the third strongest force in parliament.
Wermuth became aware of the political high-flyer, as he told the “Wochenzeitung”: “I grew up with Kosovars, and suddenly everyone raved about this kurti.”
Long-term cooperation
Two years later the SP invited Kurti to their party conference in Lugano TI. The Social Democrats had little use for Kurti’s nationalistic traits and his Greater Albania vision. Wermuth considered the rhetoric that everyone who was against the UN presence in Kosovo to be nationalists to be a misunderstanding.
But Wermuth’s interest in Vetevendosje remained. When elections were held in Switzerland and Kosovo in 2019, Wermuth performed with a kurti at an election event in Aarau. Kurti Wermuth even personally congratulated him on his election as co-head of the SP 2020. The open letter followed in 2021. Now the two parties will work together again.
Serbian criticism of Wermuth
Recently, Wermuth’s interest in Kosovo also drew criticism from Serbia. Wermuth wrote on Twitter that one should not speak of a conflict between two sides when it comes to Serbia and Kosovo. There are only Vucic, Putin and Serbian fascists who do not accept the right of the Kosovar people to self-determination.
A letter from the Serbian ambassador then became public, which sharply criticized Wermuth and demanded an apology.