Democratic League of Kosovo
|
Democratic League of Kosovo
Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës |
|
|---|---|
.svg) |
|
| Leader | Isa Mustafa |
| Founded | 23 December 1989 |
| Headquarters | Pristina, Kosovo |
| Ideology |
Conservatism Social conservatism Economic liberalism Civic nationalism Albanian nationalism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| European affiliation | European People's Party (observer) |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colours | Red, Black |
| Assembly |
33 / 120
|
| Website | |
| http://www.ldk-ks.eu/ | |
The Democratic League of Kosovo (Albanian: Lidhja Demokratike e Kosovës, LDK) is the second largest political party in Kosovo. It is a conservative and liberal conservative party.
At the legislative elections held on 24 October 2004 the party won 45.4% of the popular vote or 47 out of 120 seats (seven of which have now defected to the Nexhat Daci-led Democratic League of Dardania). One of the founding members, Ibrahim Rugova was president of the party, as well as President of Kosovo, 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's Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK); in October 2010, the LDK withdrew from the coalition.
During the late 1980s, nationalism was on the rise throughout the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Since 1974 the province of Kosovo, 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). 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 independence). At the same time, Serbian Communists' 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.
...
Wikipedia