FLASH
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The Albanian agora has been boiling over these days. There have been those who, wanting to invalidate Grenell's anathemas, have dealt with his private life, have made brief connections with the activity of a diplomat who maintains relations with all the actors of a region with conflicts to manage, have called for the help of conspiracy theories against him...
The citizens of Kosovo will go to the polls this Sunday to make a choice like never before without puns: With the US or against it?
To expose this choice with brutal clarity, President Trump's Special Envoy for the Middle East, Richard Grenell, took to the stage with a megaphone in his hand, in the metaphorical sense of the word. He said that the Kurti government was not credible either during Trump's first term, or during Biden's term, or for the EU and NATO. He then went back in time, adding that Kurti has been against every American idea offered by Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump. "Don't be fooled!" was his closing appeal to the citizens of Kosovo.
But it didn't end there.
In response to Kurti's reaction that Kosovo-US relations are better than ever, Grenell upped the ante by writing that Albin Kurti has been condemned by the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, NATO, the EU, the US Embassy, Anthony Blinken, etc.
From the point of view of content, tone and the moment when they were issued, Mr. Grenell's statements formally contrast with the customs of non-interference of one country in the electoral campaign of another. But we must say that this is very relative when talking about the responsibility of the American state, which has the number one authorship of the liberation of Kosovo from the long Serbian rule, of the independence and statehood of Kosovo through many upheavals, of guaranteeing today and all day long the security and territorial integrity of Kosovo. The indifference or neutrality of the USA under these conditions would be the same as leaving Kosovo in the mouths of wolves, a victim of Russian-Serbian scenarios that dream of turning back where its fate has been. Therefore, it is fortunate for us that the USA remains so active in Kosovo, in Albania and the region.
Grenell's statements are incisive, direct, unprecedented in their clarity and severity. They contrast with the language previously used by officials of the Biden administration, the EU, NATO, France, Germany, all of these entities that have had the same approaches to Kurti and his government in many cases. In fact, anyone who has followed American developments from one administration to another should remember that this is generally the language of Republicans when they want to separate the wheat from the chaff. Without parentheses. And their actions are like that.
The Albanian agora has been boiling over these days. There have been those who, wanting to invalidate Grenell's anathemas, have dealt with his private life, have made brief connections with the activity of a diplomat who maintains relations with all the actors of a region with conflicts to manage, have called for the help of conspiracy theories against him.
Opinions are opinions. But one thing is a fact: Grenell has spoken in the guise of President Trump's official representative for special missions.
His word carries weight. The repercussions of his positions influence the formation of the positions of the new Trump administration on Kosovo, the region and beyond. As we Albanians say, Grenell, by playing on the authority of the US and his own, has come out in debt to public opinion in Kosovo at the right time. Tomorrow no one can say that we did not know.
In the person of Kurti, Grenell has bluntly hit a typical hypocrisy of self-proclaimed sovereign Albanian politicians and statesmen. They have a habit of trumpeting to their followers that they have very good relations with the US. Even when they challenge it. Even when the US reaches a point where it slams the door on them. Speculating on their ignorance, they refer to an abstract US, sometimes they refer to two or three US. In fact, when it comes to relations at the political level between governments and institutions, there is only one US: the government, the state, the institutions. To be a reliable partner and friend of the US, it is not enough for you to say it. They must also say it, they must also recognize you as their friend.
Dissatisfaction with the Kosovo government is the only point where the Trump government meets the former Biden government, the EU and NATO. Can all these countries and institutions with so much weight be wrong? For no reason at all. There is something big that is wrong with the relations of official Pristina with the allied and friendly countries of the West.
But democracy, to the extent that it exists, always produces the means of self-defense from the dangers of isolation or deviation from the course. So too in Kosovo where there is a strong plural opposition, such as LDK, PD, AAK and others, entities that have written the history of an independent and democratic Kosovo in close relations with the US and the EU. Two of them have already gone through a process of reform and renewal of leadership.
Beyond party affiliations and sympathies, the fate of Kosovo and Albania lies in close relations with the US and the EU. Kosovo's sovereignty and self-determination, like Albania's, are Euro-Atlantic in definition, a concept completely opposite to the Enverist sovereignty of isolation and hostility to the free world. Kosovo loses everything, it loses the US, the West. The dice have been cast. The moment comes when democracy returns to its roots. The responsibility of choosing, with the US or against it, becomes a challenge for the people.
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