Kosovo Assembly to Convene Thursday, One Day Before Deadline

Acting President of Kosovo Albulena Haxhiu has called the constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly for August 6 at 10 a.m., one day before the constitutional deadline for forming the parliament expires. That deadline falls on August 7, nearly two months after the snap parliamentary elections held on June 7, with Pristina still without a government.

At a press conference, Haxhiu said the decision on a candidate for Speaker of the Assembly rests solely with the Vetevendosje Movement, as the winner of the election, and that the name, if not known earlier, would be announced at the session itself. The agenda has three items: the swearing in of newly elected MPs, the election of the Speaker, and the election of five deputy speakers. Registration of MPs at the parliament building has been underway since August 3.

Two meetings in two days, neither ending in a deal

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leader Lumir Abdixhiku met on August 4, then again on August 5 following a session of the LDK parliamentary group. The second meeting ended the same way as the first, without an agreement on forming the institutions.

“We have no news until we have an agreement. When we reach one, we will let you know,” Kurti said as he left the meeting.

Both men left the door open to further talks. Kurti said there was interest in working with the LDK to speed up progress, while Abdixhiku said his party was seeking institutional balance, so that no single party holds every post. The sharpest disagreement is over the presidency: Kurti believes it should go to a figure outside day-to-day politics who represents all citizens, while Abdixhiku wants the LDK to feel represented and calls any president who secures the backing of 80 MPs a consensual choice.

Why does the number 80 matter so much?

Kosovo’s constitution requires at least 80 MPs to be present for the first two rounds of voting for president, and if a president is not elected within 60 days of the Assembly’s constitution, parliament is dissolved and new elections are called. Adding up the mandates explains why the talks are dragging on.

Vetevendosje won 47.13 percent of the vote and 53 seats on June 7. The Democratic Party of Kosovo took 19.44 percent and 22 seats, the Democratic League of Kosovo 16.69 percent and 18 seats, and the Alliance 6.74 percent and seven seats. That leaves Kurti and Abdixhiku with 71 MPs between them, nine short of the threshold Abdixhiku himself cites. Even adding the Alliance, the count still falls short of 80, meaning any deal that produces a president will have to include either the Democratic Party of Kosovo or MPs from minority communities.

The Kosovo Assembly has 120 seats, 100 of them held by Albanian parties, 10 guaranteed to the Serb community and 10 to representatives of other non-majority communities. The Serb List won 5.40 percent of the vote and nine of the ten Serb seats, while the tenth went to Nenad Rasic’s party. The Serb List has filed a complaint with the Supreme Court over that seat, arguing it was awarded on the basis of predominantly Albanian votes.

Berlin pushes for progress, analysts bet on new elections

The German Embassy in Pristina weighed in on August 5 with a statement to Gazeta Express, adding to the external pressure on the parties at the center of Kosovo’s political crisis.

“Kosovo has no time to lose. We hope the new institutions will be formed on time and with a full mandate, so that we can continue working on our shared European agenda with Kosovo,” the German Embassy said.

Eugen Cakolli, executive director of the Kosovar Democratic Institute, said expectations of a Vetevendosje-LDK deal two days before the constitutive session had been unrealistically optimistic. He recalled that no agreement was reached ahead of the Assembly’s constitution after the 2019 election either, even though the two parties were far closer to each other at the time, separated by less than 2 percent of the vote. Now, Cakolli said, Vetevendosje has nearly three times as many votes and seats as the LDK, so it can afford to wait without major cost to its voter support.

“In the end, the more one side needs an agreement, the less reason the other side has to hurry,” Cakolli wrote in a Facebook post.

Political analyst Sadik Zeciri told RTK that the signals point toward repeat elections. By his reading of the two leaders’ statements, the LDK wants a share of government and the presidency, while Kurti is insisting on a non-partisan figure for the post.

“These are not the first, but continuous signals that Kosovo is heading toward elections. And the sooner it goes to elections, the better. Otherwise, there will be no political agreement,” Zeciri said.

Thursday’s session therefore resolves only part of the problem. If MPs take the oath and elect a Speaker, the August 7 constitutional deadline will be met, but that will start a 60-day clock for electing the president, running out in early October. If that deadline is missed as well, parliament will be dissolved and voters will head back to the polls, just under five months after the June vote.