Kosovo Parliament Deadlock Persists, PDK Wants Session Now

Kosovo’s constitutive Assembly session, suspended on Saturday, August 8, still had no continuation scheduled eight days later. Acting President Albulena Haxhiu invited the leaders of parliamentary parties to consultations on Tuesday at 9 a.m., with the agenda focused on agreeing on a consensus candidate for president and forming the remaining institutions. The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) turned the invitation down.

Haxhiu maintains that the question of the future president is the knot that must be untied first. The two opposition parties want the opposite: for the Assembly to be constituted without any new political conditions attached.

Citaku: The Speaker Has No Right to Make Political Judgments

PDK lawmaker Vlora Citaku sent a letter to Avni Dehari, the lawmaker presiding over the constitutive session, demanding that it resume the same day at 11 a.m. She called his inaction a serious violation of the Constitution and a disregard for Constitutional Court rulings, arguing that missing the constitutional deadline does not cancel the obligation to constitute the Assembly.

“Your responsibility is to enable the continuation of the session until the Assembly is constituted. It is not within your authority to decide, based on political assessments or considerations, whether and when the process of constituting the Assembly should continue,” Citaku wrote in the letter.

PDK scheduled a press conference in the Assembly lobby for the same time slot. PDK lawmaker Uran Ismaili made an identical demand a day earlier, on August 15, also before reporters.

Dehari Warns of Clashes on the Floor

Dehari is not calling the session. He argued that constituting the Assembly and forming a government without a prior agreement on the president would mean new early elections, and he pointed to the scenes from the August 13 session, when lawmakers exchanged verbal attacks, threw water at each other and scuffled.

“Any attempt to continue the session without a political agreement only raises tensions further and increases the risk of conflict, even physical conflict, inside the Assembly chamber,” Dehari said.

Why Hasn’t Kosovo’s Assembly Been Constituted?

The session opened on August 6, a day before the constitutional deadline expired. Albin Kurti did not nominate a candidate for Assembly speaker at the time; instead he asked for more time for consultations. After the session was suspended on August 8, the Assembly was left without a new date.

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) dropped its demand for posts in the future government on August 13, including the position of Assembly speaker and its earlier demand that the president come from its ranks, and agreed to discuss a joint, non-partisan candidate instead. Its position is that the Assembly should be constituted immediately, the government formed, and negotiations over the presidency held afterward. Kurti confirmed a day later that Vetevendosje also wants a consensus figure for president, but insists the agreement must come before the institutions are formed.

The deadlock has also raised a legal question about the caretaker executive. Eugen Cakoli of the Kosovo Democratic Institute (KDI) challenged the basis on which Kurti and members of his cabinet keep making decisions after being certified as lawmakers, 19 of them in total, on July 8. He pointed to the case of Hekuran Murati, in which the Supreme Court struck down a decision issued after his certification, ruling that his mandate as minister had ended at that point.

The Cost of the Deadlock

Haxhiu described the refusal of her invitation as a wrong and reckless move and a sign of unwillingness to abandon entrenched positions. In her assessment, three consecutive election cycles with similar results show that without an agreement on the presidency, there is no way out.

“Elections should be the last option, if an option at all,” she said.

AAK leader Ardian Gjini disputes her role as mediator, arguing that as acting president she has no mandate to unite the political spectrum. Fellow AAK lawmaker Burim Ramadani places the blame on Vetevendosje and says the political instability is driving away foreign investors.

The Kosovo Institute of Justice has warned that a non-functioning Assembly could jeopardize the implementation of five reform steps under the European Union’s Growth Plan, worth a combined 31.3 million euros.

Tuesday at 9 a.m. is currently the only date on the table. Judging by their public statements, the two parties demanding loudest that the session resume will not be at that table.