The renowned German newspaper "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" has dedicated an article to the efforts of Kosovo's president, Vjosa Osmani, to remain in office for another term.
In this article, journalist Michael Martens highlights how Osmani is attempting to appear close to President Trump and his family to accomplish this goal.
In a series of posts on X, Martens comments on Osman's moves. Regarding Kosovo's membership in the Peace Board, an initiative of Trump, he says that it was done without coordination with the acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, and that it was the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, who ensured its participation in this board.
Martens says that Osmani is using Trump as a weapon against the Kosovo Parliament, saying that if they do not vote for her presidential election, "they will have problems with the US," Gazeta Express reports.
Finally, Martens also comments on a post by the president's husband, Prindon Sadriu, as an attempt to get closer to the Trump family through the idea of the "Grand" hotel in Pristina becoming a "Trump" hotel.
Martens in X writes thus:
Women are not inferior to men – they are capable of doing everything men can do. Take the case of Kosovo, where President Vjosa Osmani convincingly shows that for the sake of a political career she can be just as simple as her male colleagues.
In a 2019 interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Kosovo’s incoming president Vjosa Osmani spoke at length about her (legitimate and important) goal of strengthening the role of women in Europe’s newest state. Among other things, Ms. Osmani said:
"It is important for me that, at the end of my mandate, I leave behind the message that no girl and no woman in Kosovo should ever believe that they are in any way inferior. I am convinced that women and girls in Kosovo, at the end of my mandate, will know that there is nothing they cannot do."
According to her, women in Kosovo need to understand that they can be “as capable as men – or in many cases even better.” Experience, she says, shows that women are not corruptible and that they take their service to the country and its people much more seriously than men.
Recently, President Osmani managed to ensure that Kosovo is accepted as a founding member of Donald Trump's "Peace Board", the latest plaything of the American president's ego.
According to unofficial information from Pristina, Osmani made her move without coordinating with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Instead, two sources independently claim that it was Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama who secured Osmani's access to Trump.
In an interview with the BBC, Ms. Osmani explained the background to her solo participation in Davos by reminding the audience of the time when Kosovo was still under Serbian occupation.
Albanians at that time received nothing from the United Nations except words, she said:
"What we heard then were UN Assembly resolutions, they were pieces of paper, they were words, but no action. Until the United States came and mobilized the world to come to our aid."
Osmani went on to say that, historically, it was always the right decision for Kosovo Albanians to align with the US: “We trust the leadership of the United States.” Fair argument.
Indeed: Without US leadership in 1999 (NATO war against Serbia) and 2008 (declaration of independence), there would be no independent Kosovo. There would probably be barely any Albanians left in Kosovo. However, Osmani did not answer another BBC question: whether Kosovo, a country with a shrinking population of only about 1.6 million, would pay the $1 billion fee that Trump is demanding for permanent membership in his “Peace Board.”
But the fact remains: Kosovo has less opportunity than other small European states to offend the old egomaniac in the White House. Some people argue, therefore, that with her uncoordinated solo move to Davos, President Osmani was pursuing a sensible Realpolitik for Kosovo.
But this praise does not extend to other steps taken by the president and her entourage. One example is the case of Osman's husband, Prindon Sadriu, a not-so-diplomatic diplomat whose intellectual capacity does not always keep up with his extraordinary ambition.
Most recently, Sadriu suggested to Trump at X that the former “Grand Hotel” in Pristina (an ugly ruin in the city center dating back to Yugoslav times) be turned into a “Trump Hotel.”
While this was dismissed as a strange curiosity or a minor embarrassment, the same cannot be said for the president's decision to host a reception for the premiere in Pristina of the biographical film "Melania" about Trump's wife:
According to Osmani, the film's director, Brett Ratner, (known from the Epstein files), provided a "bold portrayal of the American presidential family," as well as the "extraordinary and influential leadership" (sic) of Melania Trump.
While there was some understanding of the Davos episode, many wondered after the Melania incident: Are such statements also wise Realpolitik – or are they, at best, unnecessary, if not downright servile or characterless? From many citizens of Kosovo, you will hear the latter.
Which raises the main question: Why all this? The answer (or part of it): Osmani's presidential mandate expires in March. She wants another term and for that she needs support in the Kosovo Parliament. But she doesn't have that support currently.
For years, Osmani has failed to make many friends in parliament. Or anywhere. Pristina is full of people who describe her as a personal challenger. Many close aides, like her former chief of staff Blerim Vela, did not stick with her for long.
To compensate for the lack of domestic support, Osmani has been preparing for weeks to present herself as “Trump's candidate.” The calculation: The US is such an important factor in Kosovo that this label could secure her reelection over any other candidate.
Osmani presents herself to the public as Trump's favorite, indirectly threatening members of parliament, who elect the president, with her (alleged) good contacts with the Trump clan, using them as a weapon.
The threat is: “If you don’t re-elect me as president, you will have problems with the US.” A few years ago, such a calculation might have worked. After all, Kosovo, for understandable reasons, is the most pro-American country in the world.
But the love of Kosovo Albanians for the US is not blind. People understand that Trump's US is no longer the US of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. One proof that the strong US card no longer automatically wins is the recent parliamentary elections in Kosovo.
Kurti's Vetëvendosje party won by 51.1%, and the losers accepted the result without much fanfare, as in any functioning democracy. 51.1% despite the fact that Kurti's relationship with Trump, partly due to his tactically questionable decisions, is tenuous.
So Osmani's attempt to advance her reelection by branding herself as "Trump's candidate" is risky at best. Other solutions may be more realistic, although everything is still open.
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