Kosovo’s acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti has said that the Vetëvendosje Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo have the interest, willingness and readiness to reach an agreement on forming the country’s new institutions during the coming week.
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Talks between LVV and LDK are expected to continue after they were suspended last month because of an internal party confidence vote. Opposition party leader Lumir Abdixhiku survived that process this week.
Late on Saturday, Kurti was asked when he would resume meetings with Abdixhiku as the constitutive session of Parliament, scheduled for August 6, approaches. He said the coming days would be used to prepare as thoroughly as possible for the start of the session, which is expected to establish the institutions of the 11th legislature.
Following an event organized by his party in Pristina to welcome members of the diaspora, Kurti told Ekonomia Online that the outcome could not yet be predicted, but efforts would be made. According to him, there is interest, willingness and readiness, and everything will become clear next week.
Also on Saturday, LDK deputy leader Lutfi Haziri told Radio Free Europe that an agreement had been reached at the party assembly held on Thursday for LDK to cooperate with the ruling party to establish new institutions following the June 7 elections.
Ahead of a potential agreement with LVV, LDK has set out several principles. They include an agreement covering all institutions—Parliament, the Government and the Presidency—or none of them, as well as the state agenda, sectoral policies, governing programs, the country’s interests and the distribution of responsibilities.
Haziri told RFE that these three principles unite LDK’s parliamentary group and that the party assembly had requested that this right be exercised in full. According to him, how this request will ultimately be resolved now depends on negotiations with LVV.
Kurti, whose political party won the June 7 elections, must reach an agreement with the opposition to guarantee the election of a new president and end the prolonged political and institutional crisis.
LVV secured 53 seats. Taking into account Kurti’s cooperation to date with non-Serb minority parties, which hold 10 seats, he is expected to have at least the 61 votes needed to constitute Parliament and form the new government.
However, for the vote on Kosovo’s president to be considered valid, 80 lawmakers must be present in the 120-seat Parliament.
If an agreement is reached with LDK, which won 18 seats, the number of votes would rise to at least 81. That would be enough to elect the new president, provided that at least 80 lawmakers remain in the chamber.
For this reason, the issue of the presidency is expected to feature prominently in discussions between Kurti and Abdixhiku.
Would an agreement between LVV and LDK be enough?
Political observers say that recent developments within LDK, together with the general positions of the political parties, do not offer any reliable or promising signs that new institutions will be formed.
According to them, the narrow margin between the votes for and against extending Abdixhiku’s term as party leader once again demonstrates that deep divisions exist between two camps within LDK.
Rrahman Paçarizi, an analyst and journalism professor at the University of Pristina, told Radio Free Europe that the situation is not clarified by Haziri’s statement that LDK would seek an agreement with LVV if the latter respects the announced principles.
According to Paçarizi, the statement serves more to build the narrative that LDK cannot and should not be viewed as obstructing the formation of institutions.
He believes there is little chance that the LDK leader and the faction within the party that is dissatisfied with him will find a formula that would produce a common position among all 18 lawmakers on a potential agreement with LVV.
Analyst Artan Muhaxhiri also said that the internal clashes within LDK, despite Abdixhiku’s mandate as party leader being reconfirmed, show that an agreement with LVV would not secure the support of all 18 of the party’s lawmakers in Parliament.
Muhaxhiri stressed that Abdixhiku lacks the support of at least six or seven lawmakers out of the total. According to him, the LDK leader’s only task is to make a 180-degree change in his approach toward dissatisfied lawmakers and highly influential party figures who oppose his leadership style.
If the president is not elected within 60 days of Parliament being constituted, the legislature is dissolved and the country must hold new elections.
If Kosovo were to hold elections again, they would be the fourth parliamentary elections since the beginning of 2025. / RFE
