The Institute for Social Policies “Musine Kokalari” assesses that the promises and commitments regarding social policies made by the main political parties for the early parliamentary elections are either unsubstantiated or insufficiently explained.<\/p>\n\n
From what the political parties have presented, it is noticeable that promises are made that sound good, but there are no timelines given for how they will be implemented, nor is there any analysis of how the proposed measures will achieve their intended effect.<\/p>\n\n
Promises and commitments have often been made based on projected spending, but without considering the revenues\u2014where that money will actually come from. In other words, there is no analysis or explanation of the sources of funding for these promised expenditures.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, even in these elections, political parties continue to operate within the old tradition of making grandiose and generalized promises aimed at maximizing votes.<\/p>\n\n
For example:<\/p>\n\n
The Democratic Party of Kosovo must explain where it will obtain 1 billion euros to support the economy. PDK\u2019s proposal provides little detail on how it will proceed regarding the setting of the minimum wage. It has presented this as a promise to be fulfilled immediately after taking office, but without clearly and accurately analyzing how this decision will impact Kosovo\u2019s economic sector so that it can be well-received and easily implemented.<\/p>\n\n
For its part, the VET\u00cbVENDOSJE! Movement has a highly generalized program. In this regard, from what can be read in their 52-page program, it is evident that the concrete commitments are not broken down into specific timeframes for when they will be implemented.<\/p>\n\n
The Institute for Social Policies “Musine Kokalari” reminds that the minimum wage in the Republic of Kosovo has not changed since 2010, when it was set at 130 euros and 170 euros (based on age categories). Although the governments of the past ten years have promoted economic growth, the minimum wage has not been reconsidered, even though the Labor Law legally obliges it to be determined at the end of each year. The decision to increase the minimum wage has been neglected by every government and has been consistently ignored over time.<\/p>\n\n
We consider that this manner of promises and commitments is causing two problems:<\/p>\n\n
\u2013 It is contributing to the loss of credibility of political parties, or diminishing the importance of their programs;<\/p>\n\n
\u2013 It is affecting the overall trust in institutions.<\/p>\n\n
SOCIAL POLICIES IN THE ELECTORAL PROGRAMS OF POLITICAL PARTIES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Democratic Party of Kosovo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cRecovery and Sustainable Economic Development\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n In the Democratic Party of Kosovo\u2019s program, the proposals for social policies include a series of measures aimed at increasing the percentages for various social aspects. Below you will find the proposed increases for the specified categories:<\/p>\n\n Increase of the minimum wage \u2013 from 130 & 170 euros to 300 euros<\/p>\n\n Increase in the number of Labor Inspectors to oversee the enforcement of the Labor Law and protect the rights of employees;<\/p>\n\n 30% increase in salaries for all officials in the public sector;<\/p>\n\n 30% increase in social assistance for all social assistance beneficiaries;<\/p>\n\n 40% increase in old-age pensions<\/p>\n\n 30% increase in contributory pensions<\/p>\n\n 30% increase in war veterans\u2019 pensions<\/p>\n\n 30% increase in all other pensions<\/p>\n\n Democratic League of Kosovo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cGovernment Program\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n In the Democratic League of Kosovo\u2019s program, the section on social policies is brief and lacks concrete details that would help inform voters. Below, we list the measures proposed by the Democratic League of Kosovo:<\/p>\n\n * Revision of social and pension schemes;<\/p>\n\n * Minimum wage of 300 euros and removal of age-based leveling;<\/p>\n\n *Removal of the 15-year limit for contributory pensions;<\/p>\n\n * There have been no pensions below the minimum wage since 2023;<\/p>\n\n * Social assistance is linked to the cost of living and increased by 30%;<\/p>\n\n * Persons with special needs and care for specific groups \u2013 institutionalization of care.<\/p>\n\n VET\u00cbVENDOSJE! Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u2018Priorities for ALL citizens TOWARD the future\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The VET\u00cbVENDOSJE! Movement was the relative winner of the 2019 elections, after which it took over the governance of the country and exercised it until March 25, 2020. In this short period, it had limited opportunities to offer solutions to the accumulated problems and to implement the solutions outlined in its previous election program. Since it was not part of previous governments, we will focus on the measures it has proposed and how it plans to implement them during its governance.<\/p>\n\n Alliance for the Future of Kosovo<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cElectoral Program\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Institute for Social Policies “Musine Kokalari” assesses that the promises and commitments regarding social policies made by the main political parties for the early parliamentary elections are either unsubstantiated or insufficiently explained. From what the political parties have presented, it is noticeable that promises are made that sound good, but there are no timelines […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7036,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7035\/revisions\/7036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musineinstitute.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}