Kosovo parties ask Quint, EU to facilitate coalition talks

Gazeta Express

28/01/2020 10:59

Kosovo main parties, Vetevendosje and LDK, agreed to ask ambassadors of Quint (US, UK, Germany, France and Italy) and the EU representative in Kosovo, to facilitate a joint meeting as part of efforts to reach a deal on co-governance after October early elections.

The Vetevendosje and LDK failed on Monday to reach an agreement on sharing ministerial posts in new government as the country is sliding towards political crisis. Kosovo president Hashim Thaci has nominated last week Albin Kurti, the Vetevendosje leader to form a government. According to the Constitution Kurti has 15 days to present his new cabinet before the Parliament. Despite being under tight deadlines with only seven days left to present his government, Kurti failed on Monday to reach a deal with the LDK head Isa Mustafa on how to share powers in new government. After a two-hour meeting on Monday the Vetevendosje announced that they have decided to call Ambassadors of Quint in Kosovo and the Head of the EU Office in Pristina to a meeting set to be held today (Tuesday) at 17:00hrs.

The move has bene commented as a last chance for the two former opposition parties to find a common language and struck a deal. Kosovo’s leading newspaper Koha Ditore reported on Tuesday that the two parties are not making compromises from their initial positions on how the new government should look like. The Vetevendosje lacks majority in Parliament despite winning elections in October last year and after more than three months of negotiations they have failed to convince the second ranked party – Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) accept their offer on sharing ministerial posts. The LDK is insisting their member gets the post of Speaker of Parliament. This would mean the Vetevendosje to dismiss their deputy head Glauk Konjufca who was elected as speaker during constitutive session of Parliament held on 26 December 2019. Konjufca was elected as speaker with the votes of the LDK MPs. The Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti has reiterated that they will not dismiss the Speaker and called on LDK to look after other modalities. He even proposed to the LDK a bigger share in new government and increase of number of ministries from 12 to 14 and also agreed the LDK propose a candidate for president of the country after mandate of current president Hashim Thaci expires in 2021. But the LDK is against increasing the number of ministries just to accommodate their requests stating that this proposal goes against their principals for a small but effective government. After long negotiations parties seem to have exhausted all options and last week they presented their final offers which have neither been turned down nor accepted respectively. Amidst talks on coalition deal international community and ambassadors accredited in Kosovo call on political parties which won elections to form new government as soon as possible. /GazetaExpress/