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| Ermina Lekaj - Përlaskaj in the Croatian Parliament |
Lekaj has shown her journey in Zagreb politics. "First I started as an Albanian student who came to study in Croatia. And during my association with Croatian students I saw that they have many prejudices about the Albanian community. Even with my activities I have seen that if we do not manage to have political influence in Croatian society we have achieved nothing. The constitutional law of the Republic of Croatia enables minorities to have a member in the Croatian Parliament. In the first term I won with very few votes and we managed for the first time an Albanian to represent the Bosniaks and 4 other communities that belong to that group", Lekaj said to A2 CNN.
Awareness and factorisation of Albanians in Croatia has changed since Lekaj's mandate in the Assembly.
"The contributions of Albanians have started to be spoken more openly. We always mention that we Albanians give a great contribution both in the economic aspect, and in the patriotic war of Croatia we have given a contribution. We have not had houses of culture in Croatia and in every region we are buying houses that are owned by Albanian associations, so that their members have the opportunity to engage and deal with their culture," said the member of the Croatian Parliament.
Lekaj has directly influenced the commitment of Croatia for the two Albanian states, Albania and Kosovo.
"What is my mission at the moment is to sensitize the government and all other Croatian institutions to be as close as possible to Kosovo and every time I go with the reasoning that Kosovo is a new state that has now started to move and needs someone to help. I managed with the Croatian MPs, with the ministers to pay a visit to Kosovo and this visit should not be just a courtesy. We managed to have an economic cooperation and soon on December 15 the airline between Prishtina and Zagreb will be opened", she adds.