Albin Kurti

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Albin Kurti (2017)

Albin Kurti (born March 24, 1975 in Pristina , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ) is a Kosovar politician ( LVV ) and was Prime Minister of Kosovo from February 3, 2020 to March 25, 2020 ( executive until June 3, 2020) .

In the general election on October 6, 2019 , Kurti was the candidate with the most votes nationwide (183,868). His party Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! also received the most votes (220,811 or 26.15%).

Kurti is one of the most popular personalities in Kosovar politics. In the 1990s he was a student leader and later a political prisoner. Until 2010 he was a political activist and led the LVV as a movement. Since the LVV was transformed into a party in 2010, it has been its most important figurehead.

Life

Origin and education

Albin Kurti was born as the son of Zaim Kurti and Arife Kurti (née Tahiri) in what was then Yugoslavia in Pristina . In his hometown he attended the compulsory eight-year elementary school from 1981 to 1989 and then from 1989 to 1993 a secondary school.

Since the (Kosovar) Albanian professors and students of the University of Prishtina pursued teaching in private rooms from 1991 to 1996 ( see also section "History" of the University of Prishtina ), Albin Kurti had to study electrical engineering in this way from 1993 onwards.

Organizer of the student protests 1997–1999

Later he became head of the Independent Student Union of the University of Prishtina (SIUUP) and one of the organizers of the student resistance against the Serbian occupation of Kosovo. In 1997 he joined the guerrilla group UÇK ; from 1997 to 1999 he organized student protests in Pristina and other larger cities in Kosovo. In 1997 he was elected vice-president of the student movement and the main organizer of the non-violent student protests of 1997 and 1998. When Adem Demaçi became the political representative of the Liberation Army of Kosovo (UÇK), Kurti worked in its office.

During this time he gained political experience abroad in Washington , New York , Brussels , Copenhagen and at the European Parliament in Strasbourg as one of the more internationally known members of the Kosovar resistance against Serbia ; Kurti met with high-ranking representatives from Western Europe and the United States such as Robin Cook , Klaus Kinkel , Hubert Védrine and Bill Clinton's special envoy for the Balkans, Robert Gelbard .

In March 1999, Kurti stopped all activities. In April 1999 he was arrested by the Serbian police in Pristina during the Kosovo war . A Serbian district court in Niš sentenced him in March 2000 to 15 years imprisonment for "membership in a terrorist organization" for threatening the national integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and for founding an association with hostile activities in connection with terrorism .

Formation of Vetëvendosje !: from civil rights movement to party

After the change of power in Serbia in September 2000, Kurti was released by the new Serbian government on December 7, 2001 under international pressure. With a demonstration by the Kosovo Action Network , the predecessor organization of Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! , on June 10, 2004 against UN resolution 1244 , which justifies the stay of the UN mission in Kosovo , Kurti's career began as a resister against the international presence in Kosovo.

On June 12, 2010, Kurti was arrested in Pristina for offenses at a demonstration on February 10, 2007, shortly before he had participated in his movement Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! announced for the next parliamentary elections. On June 14, 2010 the trial against Kurti began in Pristina.

At the end of February 2015, Visar Ymeri stood as the only candidate for the election of the party leader. He was elected with over 96% and thus succeeded Albin Kurti. Albin Kurti ran again in 2018 for the party chairmanship, which he won without competition with 99% of the votes cast.

Prime Minister of Kosovo (February to March 2020)

First meeting of the new Kurti Cabinet

He stood in the early parliamentary elections on October 6, 2019 as the top candidate for Lëvizja Vetëvendosje! on. His party received 26.15% of the vote, making it the strongest political force in the country for the first time. On February 3, 2020, he was elected the new Prime Minister by 66 of the 120 MPs in Parliament. The Vetëvendosje, the LDK and two Serbian parties (with direct links to the Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić ) formed a government coalition after four months of negotiations. This was the start of a government cabinet in which, for the first time in the history of the young country, there were no former members of the UÇK .

In February 2020 Kurti presented a seven-point plan with a new policy of "reciprocity" towards Serbia. Earlier US demands did not appear in it. The European Union supported the plan, while Richard Grenell , the US special envoy for the peace negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, expressed sharp criticism.

On March 25, 2020, Kurti's government broke up in a dispute with coalition partner LDK over the right strategy to counter the COVID-19 pandemic . On March 18, Kurti dismissed Interior Minister Agim Veliu ( LDK ), who had called for a state of emergency to be declared. Veliu wanted to increase the police capacity, but this was not necessary as the police did not see any increased activity, Kurti said. In a vote of no confidence, 82 of the 120 MPs voted against the government.

family

Kurti is married to a Norwegian political scientist. The couple has one child.

Ideology as well as political positions and demands

Albin Kurti places his political party in the “left center” and describes it as “progressive”. He calls for "eye-level" in the negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia and "reciprocity" in international relations. Kurti is open to dialogue with Serbia on the condition of "full reciprocity in trade, politics and economy". Since the very beginning of his party, Kurti has been committed to “breaking the monopolies of the oligarchy in Kosovo”. By this he means in particular the current head of state Hashim Thaçi (formerly party leader of the PDK ) and Ramush Haradinaj ( AAK ), both of whom “captured” Kosovo. "The public prosecutor's office, the police, the entire judiciary, the secret services and some entrepreneurs" are involved in this "hijacking of the state".

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung called him an “anti-colonialist” because of his criticism of the foreign missions in Kosovo and because of his social democratic to socialist demands (inspired by reading Antonio Gramsci's and Frantz Fanon's works) and because he was involved in a referendum in Kosovo on unification Albania supports as "left nationalists".

Web links

Commons : Albin Kurti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Left activist Kurti becomes the new Prime Minister in Kosovo. In: Der Spiegel. February 3, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  2. ↑ tagesschau.de: Dispute over corona crisis brings down the government in Kosovo. Retrieved March 26, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Rezultatet përfundimtare nga QNR - Rezultatet e kandidatëve. Retrieved November 7, 2019 (Albanian).
  4. ↑ Rezultatet përfundimtare nga QNR - Rezultatet sipas subjekteve. Retrieved November 7, 2019 (Albanian).
  5. ↑ Unë Albin Kurti, biri i Zaim dhe Arife Kurtit! (Me, Albin Kurti, the son of Zaim and Arife Kurti!). Lajm , September 15, 2017, archived from the original on January 5, 2019 ; Retrieved September 16, 2017 (Albanian).
  6. ↑ Enver Robelli: A rebel against the thieves. The politician Albin Kurti is the bearer of hope for Kosovar youth. Tageanzeiger, June 13, 2017, accessed November 7, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Kosova Albanian student leader jailed for 15 years. Archived from the original on April 6, 2016 ; accessed on November 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Can Karpat: Albin Kurti: The Youthful Symbol of Non-Violence. January 24, 2006, archived from the original on September 30, 2007 ; accessed on November 7, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Arrestohet Albin Kurti pasi publikoi hyrjen në Politike. Alsat-M , June 12, 2010, archived from the original on April 23, 2012 ; Retrieved November 7, 2019 (Albanian).
  10. ↑ Party Issue No. 445. vetevendosje.org, February 27, 2015, archived from the original on March 14, 2015 ; Retrieved on March 13, 2015 (Albanian, PDF file, 369 kB).
  11. ↑ Albin Kurti është rizgjedhur në krye të Vetëvendosjes me rreth 99% të votave. Radio Televizioni Shqiptar , January 22, 2018, accessed November 7, 2019 (Albanian).
  12. ↑ Head-to-head race when choosing direction in Kosovo. Deutsche Welle , October 4, 2019, accessed on November 7, 2019 .
  13. ↑ a b Michael Martens: New government in Kosovo: Amselfeld without irregulars. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 4, 2020, accessed on July 10, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Michael Martens: "Mr. Kurti makes a serious mistake". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 28, 2020, accessed on July 10, 2020 .
  15. ^ Albin Kurti: Agim Veliu kreu tradhti të dyfishtë, prandaj s'u tolerua. Klankosova.tv, March 18, 2020, accessed July 10, 2020 (Albanian).
  16. ↑ Kosovo: Government disintegrates due to the Corona crisis. Tagesschau.de, March 26, 2020, accessed on July 10, 2020 .
  17. ↑ a b Andreas Ernst: Tough, dogmatic and incorruptible. Albin Kurti becomes an “anti-colonialist” head of government in Kosovo. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. October 9, 2019, accessed February 3, 2020.
  18. ↑ Albin Kurti: Only on an equal footing with Serbia. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 7, 2020, accessed on July 10, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Michael Martens: "We are a nation with two states". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , October 7, 2019, accessed on July 10, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Kurti, Albin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kosovar politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Pristina , Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia