against serbs and independence of kosovo is independence from serbia and not from albania. throughout your political career, you ve been seen as something of a firebrand, a guy who was prepared to take direct action, even to let off tear gas in the parliamentary chamber, some worry that you are a force for instability in the balkans. what is your message to the people who fear that you could bring great damage to your country in the region? 50.28% voted for us in the last elections and three top candidates will enlist now are chairing institutions of our republic. political stability has never been higher precisely with a political activist like me becoming prime minister of our independent republic. prime minister albin kurti. i thank you very much for being on hardtalk. thank you.
welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. your status as prime minister of kosovo have all put a big priority in trying to normalise relations with serbia, trying to make peace with serbia. you say it is not even a priority for you. why? we won on the 14th of february elections with a landslide victory with a ticket ofjobs and justice. i don t want to neglect normalisations with serbia, but economic developments on one hand and rule of law against corruption on the other are two top priorities. taken into consideration that we are now amidst the pandemic of covid 19, of of course, this means this is fallen at best at number four of our democratic state building agenda
relations we can have long term peace and stability. respect, offering them greater, prime minister, they have called upon you with great respect, offering them greater, looking at independent human rights reports, there is a consistent theme that the serbs who live in kosovo are excluded from the economy, are not treated fairly by the judicial system, are in effect forced to remain within their small enclaves. are you prepared to tell me that you will give a better, fairer deal to the serbs who live in your territory? these are not correct allegations. these are not correct allegations. there around five to 6% of the population and they are not discriminated. but, these things that serbia tried to impose
for our independent republic. isn t the truth if you talk about democratic state building, nothing can really happen. there can be no real progress towards a more prosperous, more stable kosovo unless you have a normal relationship with your neighbour serbia. so, in the end, it is that which must come first. that is an important part of good neighbour relations, but i must say kosovo in this year has seen an unprecedented economic growth and our central bank forsees a growth of 9.9% gdp and we took office when last year with slight contraction of 3.8% of our gdp. exports increased by two thirds this year, tax revenues by one third, without changing fiscal policy and we managed to carry out 437 police operations,
you didn t like, an agreement the serbian government supported, you let off tear gas and save the chamber in protest. your record suggests you ll do pretty much anything to prevent a normal, peaceful relationship with serbia. i was a political activist throughout my life. sometimes i was radical, but that was according to the topic, not because of my character. in 2015 and 16, there was this attempt to do bosniavation of kosovo, trying to regroup certain majority municipalities into the third layer of power and of course, we did not allow that to happen. we want good relations with serbia and we need mutual recognition, mutual recognition between the republic of kosovo and it should be the organising principle forfuture comprehensive agreements. only on the basis of eu values and principles. only on mutual recognition and reciprocity in our