On Wednesday, Kosovo’s citizens, politicians, and diplomats gathered to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Ibrahim Rugova, Kosovo’s first President—the pacifist also known as the architect of the country’s independence.

President Vjosa Osmani, whose political career is closely connected to the party Rugova established—the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK—joined the former President Rugova’s family in Prishtina at his grave to pay him homage. She expressed that Rugova’s vision still guides Kosovo.

“President Rugova united the entire people of Kosovo around the cause of freedom, independence, and democracy—a cause that is still alive,” Osmani told the media.

Two decades have passed since Rugova’s funeral, when thousands of citizens gathered to bid their leader farewell. Even now, he remains a monumental figure in Kosovo’s history; a leader who worked tirelessly for independence—an independence which he unfortunately never got to experience.

Rugova was born in 1944, in the mountainous village of Cerce near the western town of Istog. He was just six weeks old when both his father and grandfather were killed by Yugoslav Communist forces in January 1945. Decades later, he launched the struggle for an independent Kosovo based on peaceful resistance, drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

In the late 1960s he studied linguistics at the University of Prishtina. Later on, Rugova became an editor at the Pristina-based student newspaper Bota e re (New World), and the magazines Dituria (Knowledge) and Gjurmime Albanologjike (Albanological Research) in the 1970s. He also authored ten books.

Rugova spent the 1976–77 academic year at the Sorbonne in Paris, studying literature under Roland Barthes. For the next two decades, he worked at the Institute of Albanian Studies in Pristina as a senior research fellow in literature.

Like almost every other leader in the former Yugoslavia, Rugova also became a member of the ruling League of Communists, but he was expelled after joining others in demanding changes to Serbia’s constitution.

In 1988, the soft spoken politician, with his trademark silk scarf, became head of the Kosovo Writers’ Association, articulating peaceful activism. As a response to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic revoking Kosovo autonomy in 1989, Rugova joined some intellectuals in establishing a new party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, marking a new era of pluralist politics in the province.

On Wednesday, the current leaders of the LDK paid homage at the grave of former President Rugova.

“Today, on the 20th anniversary of the departure of the founding father of the Republic of Kosovo—our country, our state—we honor Ibrahim Rugova, the man who, not only realized the people of Kosovo’s historic dream for freedom and independence, but also created a major project, the greatest of the Albanians of Kosovo,” said the leader of the LDK, Lumir Abdixhiku, after the tributes.

Ukë Rugova, the son of former President Rugova—and, according to the preliminary results of the early elections of 28.12.2025, an elected MP of the LDK—has thanked this party for the work it does in preserving Rugova’s legacy in the LDK and “for continuing the permanent friendship [of Kosovo] with the United States of America and the European Union.”

LDK organized a commemorative academy, under the patronage of its leader, Abdixhiku. Through speeches and archival footage, the figure of the so-called”founding father of the state” was remembered. In the presence of the Rugova family, his wife and children, the most emblematic footage of the political experience of the former leader of the LDK and Kosovo was shown on the screen of the Red Hall in Prishtina.

The Speaker of the Kosovo Parliament, Dimal Basha, together with the acting Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Donika Gërvalla, and other MPs of the ruling Vetëvendosje Movement—former ally and current rival of the LDK—also paid homage to the grave of former President Ibrahim Rugova, on the 20th anniversary of his death.

Speaking to the media, he said they had come there to honor one of the nation’s most prominent figures. “President Rugova has extraordinary merits, starting with leading our people in extremely difficult times and circumstances, when violence and terror were exercised against our people, when citizens were being expelled from work and educational institutions,” Basha said.