The Democratic League of Kosovo ( sq, Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës, LDK) is the oldest and one of the largest
political parties in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
.
At the
legislative elections held on 24 October 2004 the party won 45.4% of the popular vote and 47 out of 120 seats, seven of which have defected to the
Nexhat Daci
Nexhat Daci (pronounced ; born June 26, 1944 in Veliki Trnovac, Bujanovac, Serbia) is a Kosovan politician. He was elected as the speaker of Assembly of Kosovo in 2001 as a member of President Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) ...
-led
Democratic League of Dardania
The Democratic League of Dardania ( sq, Lidhja Demokratike e Dardanisë) was a political party in Kosovo. The Democratic League of Dardania was established in January 2007 by the former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo Nexhat Daci following his ...
. One of the founding members,
Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova (; 2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President ...
was the president of the party as the
president of Kosovo
The president of the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Presidenti i Republikës së Kosovës, ), is the head of state and chief representative of the de facto Republic of Kosovo in the country and abroad.
The president is elected indirectly, by the Asse ...
until his death, on 21 January 2006. At the last
legislative elections held on 17 November 2007, the party won only 22.6% and 25 seats but went on to form a Coalition government with
Hashim Thaçi
Hashim Thaçi (; born 24 April 1968) is a Kosovar Albanian politician who was the president of Kosovo from April 2016 until his resignation on 5 November 2020 to face a war crimes tribunal. He was the first prime minister of Kosovo and the For ...
's
Democratic Party of Kosovo
The Democratic Party of Kosovo ( sq, Partia Demokratike e Kosovës; abbr. ''PDK'') is one of the largest political parties in Kosovo. It was originally a social-democratic party coming out of the demilitarised Kosovo Liberation Army after the K ...
(PDK). In October 2010, the LDK withdrew from the coalition.
History
During the late 1980s, nationalism was on the rise throughout the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...
. Since 1974 the province of
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, although part of the
Socialist Republic of Serbia, was a self-governed entity over which the Serbian parliament had almost no factual control (''see
Political status of Kosovo
The political status of Kosovo, also known as the Kosovo question, is the subject of a long-running political and territorial dispute between the Serbian (and previously, Yugoslav) government and the Government of Kosovo, stemming from the br ...
''). In the late 1980s, civil unrest which had been striking the province for decades, suddenly erupted further in Kosovo as ethnic
Albanians demanded more autonomy (in view of becoming the
7th Yugoslav Republic). At the same time,
Serbian Communists
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
' leader
Slobodan Milošević used the situation in Kosovo as a political means to win popularity among Serbs. In 1989, he abolished the autonomy of Kosovo using amendments to the Serbian Constitution, reverting Kosovo to its pre-1974 status, thus restoring Serbia's control of the province. In response, a group of Albanian intellectuals gathered the same year to form the Democratic League of Kosovo, which opposed these measures, as well as the ratification of Kosovo's parliament in 1990 which returned the level of Kosovo's autonomy to how it had been sixteen years earlier.
Because of its ideology, which was deemed nationalist and separatist, it was banned by the Yugoslavian authorities, together with the self-styled shadow Kosovo Parliament that opposed the ratifications of Kosovo's real assembly in July 1990. As a result, its members proclaimed in protest on the steps of the parliament building the "
Republic of Kosova", independent from Yugoslavia, which drafted its own constitution. Claiming that conditions for Albanians were not addressed, the LDK successfully called for a boycott of the Kosovar Albanians of the first free elections in 1990. Following the 1991 population census, in which LDK President Rugova also called for boycott, resulting in only 9,091 Albanians recorded which composed around 2.53% of the Kosovar population, the LDK called the Albanian people to leave and boycott all state institutions until the solution of the Albanian national question. The LDK opposed the centralized control imposed by Belgrade, which reintroduced the Serbian language as the language of Kosovo as well as making other implementations; and they were growing deeply concerned about Belgrade's handling of the Albanian populace with regards to the wider group interests.
By the spring of 1991, the LDK had support from the diaspora in
Zurich,
Stuttgart and
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
and numbered a massive membership of approximately 700,000 people. In September 1991 the LDK-constituted shadow Albanian parliament of the self-styled Republic of Kosova adopted a resolution supporting full-scale "Independence and Sovereignty of Kosovo". The LDK then led the "Coordinating Committee of Albanian Political Parties in Yugoslavia" that included most ethnic Albanian political parties in the country. The decision was that only two choices are viable for peace and stability of the region:
1) unification of all Albanian-populated areas in Yugoslavia, or
2)
an undivided Albanian state of all Albanians in the Balkans
The LDK was one of the chief organizers of a poorly organized referendum for self-determination in 1992, in which 87% of Kosovo's Albanian population (numbering 80% of the province's population) voted for independence. The referendum was declared illegal and further drove a rift between Albanians and Serbians in Kosovo. In 1992 the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
was formed and
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
remained an autonomous province of the
Republic of Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
. The LDK successfully called for Albanians, including those in
Central Serbia and in the
Preševo Valley
The Preševo Valley ( sr-cyrl, Прешевска долина, Preševska dolina, al, Lugina e Preshevës) is a geopolitical region in southern Serbia, along the border with Kosovo. The valley geographically includes municipalities of Bujanovac ...
, to boycott of general elections.
The LDK expressed bitterness when Kosovo was ignored during the
Dayton Accords
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement or the Dayton Accords ( Croatian: ''Daytonski sporazum'', Serbian and Bosnian: ''Dejtonski mirovni sporazum'' / Дејтонски миро ...
in 1995. Supporting an Albanian resistance movement the "National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo", it abandoned its support of the subsequently organized
Kosovo Liberation Army, which used violent means to achieve its goals. After 1997, the government of
Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
changed, with a first democratic cabinet formed. Most LDK members abandoned the desire to unite Kosovo with Albania at this point. The LDK's desire for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo conflict lost support among the population and was replaced by the militarist KLA when
war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
erupted in late 1998 and 1999 between the KLA and the Yugoslavian and Serbian forces. Severe atrocities against the Albanian population in Kosovo met with harsh criticism from the LDK. With recommendations from the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, the LDK abandoned pursuits for an independent Kosovo and sought negotiations with Belgrade with a goal of achieving a substantial level of autonomy for Kosovo, with Ibrahim Rugova traveling to Belgrade and meeting President Milošević (now federal leader) on this matter. This act was criticized by the Albanian public and further downgraded the LDK's popularity. After the
NATO bombing campaign in 1999, leading LDK members were present for the signing of the
Kumanovo Treaty that adopted
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244
United Nations Security Council resolution 1244, adopted on 10 June 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 (1998), 1199 (1998), 1203 (1998) and 1239 (1999), authorised an international civil and military presence in the Federal Republic of Y ...
and formalized the cessation of hostilities in Kosovo. However, despite their support of Resolution 1244, which mandates significant autonomy for Kosovo while recognizing the "sovereignty and territorial integrity" of Yugoslavia, the LDK continually supported the independence of Kosovo. It is suspected that hundreds of supporters of the Democratic League of Kosovo were kidnapped, tortured and some killed in secret prisons of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, mainly between 1998 and 2001, because perceived as rivals of the
Democratic Party of Kosovo
The Democratic Party of Kosovo ( sq, Partia Demokratike e Kosovës; abbr. ''PDK'') is one of the largest political parties in Kosovo. It was originally a social-democratic party coming out of the demilitarised Kosovo Liberation Army after the K ...
.
While still the second largest political party in Kosovo, the LDK's support has steadily declined since Kosovo's first elections (municipal) in 2001. Other political parties, including those linked to the former Kosovo Liberation Army, such as the
Democratic Party of Kosovo
The Democratic Party of Kosovo ( sq, Partia Demokratike e Kosovës; abbr. ''PDK'') is one of the largest political parties in Kosovo. It was originally a social-democratic party coming out of the demilitarised Kosovo Liberation Army after the K ...
(PDK) and the
Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), have scored much gains at LDK's expense. The party is presided by a president and five vice-presidents.
Ideology
The Party initially started out as an
Albanian nationalist right-wing movement which campaigned for
Kosovan independence. It was then led by
Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova (; 2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President ...
a moderate leader who separated with the
Kosovo Liberation Army faction. After the war the party remained under the
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
leadership of Rugova. The party also adopted several
pro-European
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...
policies as well as moving farther to the centre of the political spectrum. However, after
Rugovas' death the party went through a period of turmoil with several factions vying for control over the party. The more
liberal-conservative
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...
stance of
Fatmir Sejdiu
Fatmir Sejdiu (; born 23 October 1951) is a Kosovar politician. He was the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and was the 1st President of Republic of Kosovo.
Early life and education
Fatmir Sejdiu was born on October 23, 1951, in t ...
took over, leading to
Nexhat Daci
Nexhat Daci (pronounced ; born June 26, 1944 in Veliki Trnovac, Bujanovac, Serbia) is a Kosovan politician. He was elected as the speaker of Assembly of Kosovo in 2001 as a member of President Ibrahim Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) ...
and 6 other MAs forming the more
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Democratic League of Dardania
The Democratic League of Dardania ( sq, Lidhja Demokratike e Dardanisë) was a political party in Kosovo. The Democratic League of Dardania was established in January 2007 by the former Speaker of the Assembly of Kosovo Nexhat Daci following his ...
.
After losing seats consistently under
Sejdius leadership unrest within the party began to grow and before the
Kosovan parliamentary election, 2010 Isa Mustafa
Isa Mustafa (; born 15 May 1951) is a retired Kosovar politician. Mustafa was the mayor of Pristina from December 2007 to December 2013 and served as the prime minister of Kosovo between December 2014 and September 2017. He was the leader of the D ...
emerged as the new leader securing more than two thirds of the votes. Mustafa's leadership has seen the party return to the more hardline
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
stance, and some politicians have even come to describe the League as a
social conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social instituti ...
party as well.
Critics have said the party has considerably abandoned their traditional, Kosovo-Albanian nationalist policies and policies of their founder
Ibrahim Rugova
Ibrahim Rugova (; 2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer, who served as the President of the partially recognised Republic of Kosova, serving from 1992 to 2000 and as President ...
. Since August 2014, it has been attacked by
Vetevendosje on that front.
The Democratic League of Kosovo has been described as
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to Left-w ...
,
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
and
right-wing.
Controversies
Former party leader Isa Mustafa had over 70 cases submitted to the prosecutor over alleged abuse of office while serving as Prishtina mayor. These cases were all thrown out from the prosecutors in charge as the former mayor had no ties with the cases submitted. Former Minister of Culture Astrit Haraqia has been accused of abusing office during 2004–2007 as well as being involved in a large scheme to sell Schengen visas with other party official Ukë Rugova. Suspected of corruption is also current MP Naser Osmani for alleged wrongdoings while in the board of Kosovo Privatisation Agency. He ran and gained a seat in the Assembly despite the accusations. Former Obiliq municipality mayor Mehmet Krasniqi is being investigated for abuse of office. Mehmet Krasniqi has since been found not guilty on the charges.
In October 2020, the
Hoti Government drafted the Recovery plan which provided assistance to businesses. In the list made by the
Minister of Finance, Labor and Transfers of Kosovo Hekuran Murati
Hekuran Murati (born November 7, 1987) is a Kosovo Albanian economist and conservative politician, currently serving as minister of finance, labor and transfers of Kosovo. After a successful career in civil service and business consultancy, he ...
a total of 50 businesses had benefited 60 million euros from the recovery package drafted by the
Hoti Government. The Recovery plan fueled big businesses in Kosovo instead of small ones, "Viva Fresh" had been given over 860 thousand euros, "Elkos" of Ramiz Kelmendi with over 675 thousand euros, "Proex" with over 335 thousand euros, "Hib Petrol" with over 307 thousand euros. In the Recovery plan also benefited the security company "Balkan International SHPK" which is owned by Besnik Berisha, a former advisor to
Isa Mustafa
Isa Mustafa (; born 15 May 1951) is a retired Kosovar politician. Mustafa was the mayor of Pristina from December 2007 to December 2013 and served as the prime minister of Kosovo between December 2014 and September 2017. He was the leader of the D ...
when he was
Prime Minister of Kosovo
The prime minister of the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Kryeministri i Republikës së Kosovës, sr, Премијер Републике Косова, Premijer Republike Kosova) is the head of government of Kosovo.
The prime minister and the Gover ...
, his company received over 100 thousand euros.
Chairperson of the LDK, 1989–present
Elections results
Parliamentary results
Municipal mayor results
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Political parties established in 1989
Conservative parties in Kosovo
Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization
Pro-European political parties in Kosovo