PDK leader Bedri Hamza. Photo: BIRN.
The head of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Bedri Hamza, announced on Wednesday he is stepping down from the role he took less than a year ago.
Hamza said that the decision to step down opens the way for an internal election process in which party members should decide about the future leadership. He suggested a greater role for youth in the process.
“Every leader must know when it is time to pave the way for a new phase. I just finished the presidency meeting and today I have irrevocably resigned from the position of leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo,” he said. PDK is the largest opposition party in Kosovo currently.
“I am not leaving the PDK. I am only leaving the position of chairman, but not from the belief in our political values. As long as I live, I will be a loyal PDK voter and a member of this great political family,” he said.
Hamza’s resignation comes five weeks after a Hague-based war crimes court convicted Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli, two previous PDK leaders, of war crimes and sentenced them to 25 and 18 years of imprisonment, respectively.
The PDK emerged from the senior ranks of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) following the end of the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo. For years it was led by Hashim Thaci, the KLA’s wartime political director.
It first took power in 2007 and oversaw Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia the following year.
When Thaci became president of Kosovo in 2016, the leadership of the party passed to Kadri Veseli, who previously led the shadowy Kosovo Intelligence Service (SHIK).
After 12 years in power, the PDK slipped into third place in terms of parliamentary seats in elections in 2019. In the June elections this year, it won 22 out of 120 seats in the assembly, far behind the ruling party Vetevendosje of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, which won 53 seats.