PDK, AAK Reject Kurti's Invitation Before Kosovo Assembly
Kosovo Assembly's constitutive session is set for Thursday, August 6, one day before the constitutional deadline expires, and two of the three opposition parties Kurti invited have already said no.
Albin Kurti, leader of the Vetevendosje Movement and prime minister in a technical mandate, invited Kosovo’s three strongest opposition parties to talks before the Kosovo Assembly’s constitutive session. The talks were meant to cover the formation of new institutions, but two of the parties refused the same day. The session is scheduled for Thursday, August 6, at 10 a.m., three days after these replies.
The invitations were sent by the Vetevendosje Movement itself, to the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and the Alliance for Kosovo’s Future (AAK). PDK answered first, and it was a no. The party’s leader, Bedri Hamza, said PDK remains in opposition and that Kurti himself needs to secure the necessary majority and reach an agreement on forming institutions with other political actors.
AAK also declined to take part. The party said it had received no answers to six demands it had set earlier as a condition for starting any talks, one of which concerns the election of Kosovo’s president. LDK had not stated a position on the invitation by the time of publication, making its silence the only path that remains open for now.
Speaking earlier about the days leading up to the session, Kurti said: “We will try to use these days to be as ready as possible once the session begins.”
What Is Being Decided on Thursday?
The session was called by Albulena Haxhiu, Kosovo’s acting president. The constitutional deadline for constituting the assembly expires on August 7, exactly one day after the scheduled session, and the clock started running on July 8, when the results of the snap election were certified. When the date was announced, we reported that the session had been placed on the last possible working day, with no room left for postponement.
At the session itself, lawmakers take the oath, confirm their mandates and elect the Speaker of the Assembly. Only after that can the assembly elect Kosovo’s president and confirm a new government. If the first step fails, the rest never even come up.
The Math Behind the Missing Majority
In the snap election on June 7, Vetevendosje won 47.13 percent of the vote and 53 seats. The Kosovo Assembly has 120 lawmakers, meaning Kurti is eight votes short of the majority of the total membership needed to elect a Speaker.
That is the substance behind both responses that arrived today:
- PDK says the majority should be found elsewhere, though it does not rule out that Kurti will find it
- AAK does not reject talks in principle, but wants its six questions answered first
- LDK, the only party that has not responded, remains the one with which the numbers are easiest to close
The question of electing Kosovo’s president, which AAK has put on the table, is not incidental. That vote requires a two thirds majority in the first two rounds, dropping to a majority of the total membership only in the third round. A party that raises this position at the start of negotiations is effectively naming a price for the entire mandate, not for a single vote.
Why the Deadline Is Not a Formality This Time
The previous convocation of the Kosovo Assembly took months to constitute itself, through a series of failed votes for Speaker, and that mandate never produced a government. The June 7 snap election was a direct consequence of that failure. That is why representatives of the international community and international missions in Kosovo repeatedly urged political actors after the June vote to reach an agreement as soon as possible, to avoid another institutional deadlock and the possibility of yet another snap election being called.
The difference from the previous cycle is that this time everything comes down to a single date. Last time, the constituting process could drag on through postponements and interrupted sessions. Now only a single day separates Thursday’s scheduled session from the expiry of the constitutional deadline.
For the Serb community in Kosovo, the outcome is not abstract. The ten guaranteed seats in the assembly are not activated until the session passes, and without a constituted assembly there is no counterpart to discuss issues that have been on hold since the start of the year, from the dinar and payment transactions to property cases.
Between now and 10 a.m. Thursday, Kurti still has time to change the answer of at least one of the parties that turned him down today, or to wait and see what LDK says.
