"First, we will focus on the privatization of small and medium sized enterprises, followed by the medium size industry and then we will move on to the heavy industry"
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A privatization plan can sound like spreadsheet talk until you remember who Ibrahim Rugova was: a soft-spoken nationalist navigating the wreckage of Yugoslavia and the hard reality that Kosovo’s future would be argued as much in budgets as in slogans. The line’s power is in its staged certainty. “First... followed by... then” reads like choreography, a deliberate attempt to turn political risk into an orderly sequence. In a post-socialist landscape where “privatization” often translated into insider deals, asset stripping, and public resentment, Rugova’s procedural tone is doing reputational work. He’s selling predictability.
The chosen order is the real message. Starting with small and medium enterprises signals an effort to build a domestic business class before handing over the commanding heights. It implies jobs, storefronts, and local ownership - the kind of everyday capitalism that feels less like conquest and more like recovery. Moving to “medium size industry” next suggests a bridge phase: scale up competence, institutions, and perhaps investor confidence. Only then, “heavy industry,” the sector most entangled with strategic power, unions, and national symbolism. That last step is code for: we won’t let the country be bought all at once.
Subtext: Rugova is speaking to multiple audiences at once. To citizens, he offers a guardrail against shock therapy. To international backers, he signals alignment with market reforms and administrative seriousness. To political rivals, he claims the mantle of responsible state-building: gradualism as a form of sovereignty.
The chosen order is the real message. Starting with small and medium enterprises signals an effort to build a domestic business class before handing over the commanding heights. It implies jobs, storefronts, and local ownership - the kind of everyday capitalism that feels less like conquest and more like recovery. Moving to “medium size industry” next suggests a bridge phase: scale up competence, institutions, and perhaps investor confidence. Only then, “heavy industry,” the sector most entangled with strategic power, unions, and national symbolism. That last step is code for: we won’t let the country be bought all at once.
Subtext: Rugova is speaking to multiple audiences at once. To citizens, he offers a guardrail against shock therapy. To international backers, he signals alignment with market reforms and administrative seriousness. To political rivals, he claims the mantle of responsible state-building: gradualism as a form of sovereignty.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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