Wrote: Etrit Rexhepi
In the local elections for mayor of Pristina in 2021, Përparim Rama had included in his program a plan to redefine the center of the capital.
"Under my management, the center of Prishtina will be the entire 'Central District' of the city. The 'Central District' will be bordered by six key points with underground parking lots. From each point, access to the center will be within a distance of 500 meters, or a maximum of 7 minutes' walk. In addition, citizens will have the opportunity to use public transportation, which will run every 7 minutes.", Rama had promised (see here).
And in one video published on September 23, 2021, Rama presented the re-defence of the center as a two-year project.
Was the project completed?
During the four years of Rama's mandate as mayor of the capital, hibrid.info has noticed that none of the work initiated in some parts of the project has been completed, despite the fact that they were scheduled to be completed during the period in question.
Analyze:
In the local elections for mayor of Pristina in 2021, Përparim Rama had included in his program a plan to redefine the center of the capital. He claimed that until then, citizens saw the center only as "Mother Teresa" Square, but that with him at the helm, the space in question would expand significantly.
"Under my management, the center of Prishtina will be the entire 'Central District' of the city. The 'Central District' will be bordered by six key points with underground parking lots. From each point, access to the center will be within a distance of 500 meters, or a maximum of 7 minutes' walk. In addition, citizens will have the opportunity to use public transportation, which will run every 7 minutes.", he had promised.
He even explained what the downtown area would look like.
"At the moment we have this part of the 'Mother Teresa' square, meaning that the 'Mother Teresa' square is the only place today where citizens feel completely free to leave their children, to leave them, meaning the elderly can sit and walk freely. I think that the city of Pristina or the 'Central Zone' should not only have this small part of the 'Mother Teresa' square, but it should have all of this that you see in red. What is this? 'Agim Ramadani' street that goes towards the 'Old City', to the 'Llapi Mosque', then behind the Youth Palace, comes here to the district that connects to Mitrovica and goes to Fushë Kosovë, to the bus station there to the place here of the flag, and goes around the skyscrapers of the fountain, there of Ulpiana and connects again. That is, this should be the 'Center Area' where the citizen is first, where public transport is second along with alternative transport, while cars are third. And how can we do this? Before we do this hierarchy, we should have parking lots that are tangential around, that allow cars, for example, to come and park within this area, from each point. No point within will be further than 500 meters, or 5 -6 minutes, 7 minutes by foot.", Rama had said (see here).
Among other things, the key ideas of the project were:
- The creation of the “Historic Square of Pristina”, a connection that would continue to the “Flag Circle”;
- Connecting the "Center" with surrounding neighborhoods, through green platforms and alternative transportation paths;
- The creation of six strategic points tangential to the "Center", which would function as parking lots, as well as provide access to the center at a distance of no more than 5 minutes on foot.
The expansion of the “Historic Square of Prishtina” to the “Flag Circle” has not been completed. Although the report “Identity of Municipalities” of the GAP Institute states that this project has not yet started (see here), hibrid.info has found that work on expanding this square towards the "Flag Circle" has started on "George Bush" Street (see here).
The continuation of the square is being promised by Rama even in the local election campaign for the mayor of the capital, which will be held on October 12, 2025 (see here and here). This confirms that the project in question has not been completed during this mandate.
Regarding the connection of neighborhoods with the city center, during this mandate, the connection of “Arbëria” and “Old Prishtina” with the expanded center was foreseen. Also, the connection of “Mother Teresa” Square with the “Old City” area of Prishtina, which was foreseen through the construction of an underpass on “Agim Ramadani” street, has not been realized.
In the GAP Institute report, "Identity Card of Municipalities", it is written that in the last year of the mandate, a contract was signed with an operator for the opening of the tunnel on "Agim Ramadani" street. "Some initial work was encountered on the ground, but then the Agency for the Protection of Heritage Monuments intervened and stopped the works, on the grounds that the municipality was not equipped with the appropriate permit to execute works in a protected area.", the report states (see here).
The non-completion of this project is also confirmed on the launched website dedicated to the projects and works carried out by President Rama during this mandate (see here).
To connect the "Arbëria" neighborhood with the "Center", the program envisaged this through the green platform in continuity with the Youth Palace, above the inner circle road.
The report "Identity Card of Municipalities" notes that work has begun on the construction of the plateau that connects the city center with the "Arbëria" neighborhood.
Work on this project is continuing, according to Mayor Rama.
Meanwhile, as for the underground parking lots, the only one where work has been identified as having begun is the one at the New Mosque, which the "Municipal Identity Card" report considers to have not yet begun. However, the "prishtina.work" platform claims that the project is being implemented.
Conclusion:
In the 2021 local elections, Rama promised to redefine the center of Pristina by expanding "Mother Teresa" Square, connecting surrounding neighborhoods, and creating six strategic parking lots.
However, the key tasks foreseen for the first term in the implementation of this project have not been completed.
Therefore, based on the work methodology, hibrid.info evaluates the commitment as a "promise not kept".
Reasoning:
Fulfillment or keeping of promises is mainly related to pre-election promises, which are monitored at the central and local levels during the four-year mandate. This research is mainly conducted during the pre-election campaign, where the main political figures are monitored, in order to have a fact-check of what they say. Based on the promises made earlier, through the election program, Hibrid.info checks the statements of these politicians, to see if they have managed to keep those promises after the mandate. Hibrid.info plans to publish such reports on an annual basis.
The assessment in this category is made as – keeping the promise (if it is kept), partial keeping of the promise and promise not kept (if it is not kept).