Kurti Elected Kosovo Prime Minister for Fourth Time

Kosovo’s Assembly elected a new government led by Albin Kurti on the evening of September 13, the fourth since he took charge of the executive. The vote came just hours after parliament was declared constituted that same morning, even though the deputy speaker’s seat reserved for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) remained unfilled. The Vetevendosje Movement nominated Kurti as prime minister designate as soon as the Assembly was constituted, acting Speaker Albulena Haxhiu confirmed the nomination, and an extraordinary session to elect the government was called that same afternoon.

According to a report by the Beta news agency, the new government’s program is nearly identical to the one Kurti presented in February. Of the Assembly’s 120 seats, 70 lawmakers attended the session, and 62 voted in favor of the government. Deputies from PDK, the Democratic League of Kosovo, and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) were not in the chamber. The Serb List, which holds nine seats, was present, and its parliamentary group leader announced the party would vote against.

Sources differ on the exact number of votes against. Koha reports there were eight votes against, all from the Serb List. Ekonomia Online, on the other hand, states the government was elected with 62 votes in favor, none against and none abstaining. B92 confirms the Serb List voted against the government’s election but does not give an exact vote count. A consolidated, official tally was not available at the time of this report’s publication.

The cabinet’s composition is unchanged from the February government. Glauk Konjufca is first deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and diaspora, Donika Gervalla is second deputy prime minister and minister of justice, and Fikrim Damka is third deputy prime minister, responsible for minority affairs and cooperation. Xhelal Svecla remains at the helm of internal affairs, Ejup Maqedonci of defense, Hekuran Murati of finance, and Elbert Krasniqi of local government.

Nenad Rasic, of the Civic Initiative for Freedom, Justice and Survival party, remains minister for communities and return. His party won only one of the ten Assembly seats guaranteed to the Serb community in the June 7 election, while the Serb List won nine. That gap was the central theme of the address given by Igor Simic, leader of the Serb List’s parliamentary group, during the debate that preceded the vote.

“The previous government, which had the same makeup, also systematically violated all regulations,” Simic said, arguing that the same policy is continuing under the new government. He added that “the ethnic distance between the Serbian and Albanian people has unfortunately never been greater,” and recalled that the previous government, in his words, had opened 20 police bases in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, and not a single job. “That is something our people do not want. They do not want the militarization of that area,” Simic said.

In his policy address, Kurti announced more than one billion euros in defense investment over the next four years and the launch of a domestic defense industry that would produce ammunition, drones and other equipment. He also announced an average public sector salary above 1,000 euros a month, as well as a doubling of the child allowance, from 30 to 60 euros per child. Speaking three days before the expected verdict against former KLA members in The Hague, he said “neither a domestic nor an international court can tarnish the KLA.”

The government’s election did not go unchallenged. Adrian Gjini, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, said: “The government elected today is unconstitutional and illegitimate,” and announced he would take the matter to the Constitutional Court. On September 14, PDK filed a request with the Constitutional Court challenging the way the Assembly was constituted, arguing that, under an earlier ruling by that same court, parliament should have been constituted no later than August 8. PDK’s lawyer, Faton Fetahu, stated that “the Assembly was not constituted in accordance with the Constitution, the Assembly’s rules of procedure, or the rulings of the Constitutional Court.”

srpske.rs has previously reported on the dispute over the composition of the new Kosovo parliament, when the Assembly elected its five deputy speakers and a dispute first broke out over who represents the Serbian people in those bodies.

PDK says it will file a second request with the Constitutional Court tomorrow, September 15, this time against the election of the government itself. The Alliance for the Future of Kosovo has announced the same step. Whether the Constitutional Court will rule before the new government manages to implement any of what it has announced remains an open question for the coming weeks.