The entry of Alliance into the Government a year before the elections is an unnecessary move and acrobatics, they have nothing to show or prove. This is a coalition for daily politics and to suppress the different voices in DUI, that is, our group, Izet Mexhiti, vice president of the party says in the interview with “Republika”.

In other words, the Alliance for the rescue of Artan Grubi, emphasizes Mexhiti.

According to him, the intention is to present this coalition as European, increase and stabilize the majority and approach the figure of 80 for constitutional amendments, but they are far from voting for the new government.

Now all the arguments have fallen and the number has been reduced to 64 MPs, but we will see if it will be enough. It was seen that this is not about increasing the majority, nor about a European coalition or European values, because the proposals they are making do not go in that direction. One of the examples is DUI, that is, Grubi’s wing wanted to promote a green agenda, and the first move was made by the Ministry of Ecology, which shows that they are not serious in their efforts.

Mexhiti believes that SDSM and DUI have shown themselves to be incorrect towards Alternativa.

They wouldn’t have a Government without those four votes of Alternativa, and they shouldn’t have kicked them out now that they have another combination. The entry of the Alliance into the Government at this moment will destabilize the political situation in all parties, and even in the Alliance itself. Instead of being the leader of the Albanian opposition, they entered the government a year before the elections to be a crutch for Artan Grubi, and for that, I think they will pay a price. But we also have no explanation here why DUI is again with a Government with 64 MPs at best, and worse it can give 20-30 percent of what it has to the Alliance for the same number.

Mexhiti assures that his group will not vote for the new government.

This is a policy of spite and for daily interests and I publicly say that I will not vote for the new Government, but we have no doubts about the constitutional changes. The two things should not be connected. At the moment, we have three fiery MPs, as they call us, but we are also talking to others because there is dissatisfaction among other parties as well. Let’s wait.

The vice president of DUI openly explains why they have disagreements with Artan Grubi and when they arose.

DUI from 2002 to today at least in Cair was always the winner except for 2016 when Grubi was head of the candidate list and we were the third party. Someone will say that those were difficult times for DUI – yes, but in 2016 we won in Saraj and in 2017 we returned as winners with Visar Ganiu. In 2020 I was the head of the first electoral district and Grubi was neither a head nor a candidate, nor in the headquarters. He then made a statement that he would step down, and here was the fraud among the voters, because we hid him, and then we returned him to the big door and appointed him deputy prime minister after we received the votes from the voters. He is illegitimate to the voters and, moreover, he did not pass the national council of DUI, that is, through the party bodies. He is also illegitimate in the party bodies, and despite the fact that he is illegitimate, he had a chance to prove himself with work. After three years, we managed to convince Ahmeti that there must be party bodies, debate, analysis, and the new bodies were constituted when Grubi stepped down from the presidency and remained only a member of the party. We fought to have a report from the Government in the area of DUI. We also did an audit of the Government’s report and the audit came out much worse than our expectations. There is only a two percent realization in capital investments. He leads the ministry of political system from where there is not a single political initiative or amendment or addition to any law. We are not asking out of spite for them to leave and for someone else to come, but on the contrary, they should go because they are illegitimate among the people and in the party structures, they have not worked and therefore they should leave for the sake of DUI. If Ahmeti does not listen to us, he should listen to the membership. DUI and the state are better off without Grubi.

Mexhiti also explains the new scandal involving the Grubi family and the purchase of a store on “Macedonia” street.

It is for these reasons that we ask Artan Grubi to go, he is illegitimate, he has not done his job, he is arrogant. What was expressed was documented, there was a property deed from the cadastre, and the Prosecutor’s Office should have the final word on this, and there is a lot of work to be done in that direction.

Mexhiti points out that Grubi hides behind Ali Ahmeti all the time and his tendency is for the group to confront leader Ahmeti, but there is no concrete answer as to why he protects him so much.

This time, Ahmeti unnecessarily took a side. He should have let us face the two currents and listened to the arguments and come to a conclusion. We do not pretend. We do not say that we are one hundred percent right about everything, but we came forward with arguments and with a revision and we defend those views. I believe that 99 percent of the members of DUI think like us. Some are afraid, some are calculating, and some are interested in employment and do not express it publicly, but what is seen is clear enough to see the picture. You see that the entire government cabinet is going and they are welcomed by 20 people and we are going who can’t promise them employment or anything, but there are people in the front lines who expect to be fired. We are fighting for DUI to return to the right path and to be a winner as in the past. Where Grubi slanders us, we are losers, as was the case in the local elections where we lost important municipalities in the Polog region. The polls don’t show that they are bright for DUI. We are kind of raising the alarm that something needs to be done.

He explains what was meant by the words expressed at the rally in Saraj that “Grubi surrounds Ahmeti with Thaci, Taravari and Sela, but you cannot move forward with devils from the outside.”

Those who know DUI and in the most difficult times from 2006 to 2008 when we won and were not part of the government, these people were all against Ahmeti. Starting with Thaci, Taravari, Sela, Bujar Osmani, Artan Grubi. We protected Ahmeti from them.

Mexhiti believes that it is most important to remove Grubi’s influence because it is harmful to both Albanians and DUI.

He thinks that with the entry of the Alliance into the Government, there will be no opposition. As an example, there was a weak opposition in Tetovo, but the people happened. And now the people are happening to us. It is a wrong policy to eliminate the opposition. On the contrary, the entry of the Alliance will destabilize DUI, but also the Alliance itself, and Alternativa, as well as other parties.

Mexhiti says they do not plan to form a party even if Ahmeti firmly stands behind Grubi.

We are waging the battle internally and we will wage it internally. We have used only a part of the democratic instruments and we have a whole range of democratic instruments and I am optimistic that we will score a victory and our victory will be the victory of the members of DUI and Ahmeti.

He says that DUI has never had such a position in the Government before, and that does not give results.

We have a Parliament Speaker, and in the government, we run important departments and here is the main problem – the best political position but the weakest efficiency and results. The question arises, what do they do with these positions if it has no effect on capital investments, decentralization, the Albanian language, fair representation… What do they do, and where do they exercise this political power? asks the vice president of the party.

Mexhiti sees no need for early elections.

And what was done is unnecessary, there was a stable majority and it was only necessary to do what was promised and there would be no need for such political acrobatics. I hope that this will not lead to early elections and together we should find the strength to find a solution and to come to constitutional changes because that is the only way for the citizens to go towards the EU.

Listen to the entire conversation in the video interview conducted by Igor Caveski