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At the end of 1999, he was elected head of the Party for Democratic Progress, which was soon renamed the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK), and whose leadership position he left when he was elected president of the Provisional Institutions four years ago.
In January 2008, Thaci became prime minister and the following month, on February 17, a declaration was adopted on the self-proclaimed independence of Kosovo. He was also Prime Minister from 2011 to 2014 and took office on April 7, 2016.
Photo: EPA
He was part of the Pristina delegation during the 2005-2007 negotiations on the future status of Kosovo, led by Martti Ahtisaari. When he assumed the presidency, he took on the role of Pristina’s chief negotiator in the EU-chaired dialogue.
A Serbian court in Pristina sentenced Thaci in 1997, in absentia, to 10 years in prison for terrorism. Although in previous years there was an initiative of non-governmental organizations for Thaci to visit Belgrade, due to this verdict, it was not possible, as he would have to be arrested. Thaci lived in Switzerland from 1994 to 1998, which granted him political asylum, where he studied political science and history at the University of Zurich.
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