Kurti’s invitation to set up new institutions, Bytyçi: Without an agreement on the president, the process remains complicated

On Thursday, Prime Minister Albin Kurti sent invitations to political parties for a meeting related to the creation of new institutions following the June 7 elections.

Bedri Hamza was the first to respond positively to this invitation, while Lumir Abdixhiku needed more time to return a positive response, while also setting several conditions.

On the other hand, AAK’s Ardian Gjini rejected Kurti’s invitation.

In these circumstances, the question remains what this meeting between Kurti and opposition leaders can produce in Kosovo’s current political situation.

On this issue, Prof. Dr. Enver Bytyçi spoke to ‘Bota sot’. He said that the Central Election Commission finally announced the results of the June 7 vote. According to him, the CEC could have done this earlier, but, as he says, Albanians do not treat time properly.

“For me there was a kind of delay, because I believe this commission has the ability to make it possible for the creation of institutions to begin more quickly. But we Albanians, it seems to me, value time the least. And in fact time is what should be valued more than anything else. ‘Come on, we have time!’ That is the metaphor we use. Albanian election commissioners are the same,” he says.

According to Bytyçi, this is the third consecutive time Kurti has invited opposition leaders to a meeting, after two previous unsuccessful attempts since the last elections.

“One day after the announcement of the election results, the head of the majority, Albin Kurti, sought talks with the leaders of the parliamentary parties, with the aim of creating the institutions. This is the third time Kosovo’s political leaders are training for this process. The previous two times failed very successfully. The first time, after the February 9, 2025 elections, they failed to form the government. The second time, to elect the president. This time the challenge is again the election of the president, because the Assembly presidency and the government can be elected only with the votes of the majority,” Professor Bytyçi told ‘Bota sot’.

He stresses that it is precisely the lack of votes to elect the president that makes cooperation between the majority and the opposition necessary.

“Not only the need, but the necessity of this cooperation. So the head of state can only be the product of an agreement. That is why Kurti made the relevant invitation. But will the opposition leaders respond positively to this invitation? AAK has shown itself ready to take part in the meeting with several conditions, according to it. It has not made these conditions public. If it is about selecting a non-partisan candidate, or at least one acceptable to all sides, and if AAK has a specific name in mind, this would be the greatest help this party could give, even though it is small in its representation in parliament,” he emphasizes.

The professor says the current situation seems even more difficult to him than the one after the December 28 elections last year.

“In the PDK I see that the PRONTO clan, or the manipulative, extortionist and insatiable clan, also frightened by the reaction of justice, is a grouping that accepts no compromise with Vetëvendosje, the Guxo List and Alternativa. They have only one objection and one fixation: to block indefinitely the creation of institutions in the hope that the head of this clan will return to Kosovo and then, according to them, they will change the balance of power in their favor. At most, this clan would want a president who would be ready to block all legal initiatives for justice reform,” he says.

However, according to him, there are quite a few deputies in the Democratic Party of Kosovo who want Kosovo’s institutional stability and, consequently, naturally support a possible agreement, as well as talks on this with Kurti.

“If the PDK were ready for an agreement that would also include electoral reform, then the creation of institutions would be easily achieved within a week. But I see no possibility of this happening, because of what I said above. The scores of this party still have decision-making power, even imposing power, and they have no interest whatsoever in giving Kosovo institutional stability. That is why Bedri Hamza has still not spoken out, he still has not given a response to Mr. Kurti’s invitation. If he responds positively to the invitation, then he should go with concrete proposals. Because it is not a solution to go to a meeting and tell the head of the majority: ‘What are you thinking?’” he underlined.

Further, Bytyçi says that the Democratic League is also facing internal divisions because of its chairman Lumir Abdixhiku’s successive election losses.

According to him, conservative currents within this party are demanding, perhaps rightly, Abdixhiku’s removal from the leadership of the LDK.

“As a result, the head of the LDK does not find it easy to make a clear and firm decision. What will he do? He himself does not believe he has the support of all his deputies to make an agreement with Mr. Kurti. If he lacks even two deputies for this, he has no power to sign an agreement, because 80 deputies in the hall for the election of the president cannot be guaranteed,” he says.

For all these reasons, the professor considers the process of forming the new institutions to be difficult.

“A considerable number of elected deputies are in parliament to protect personal or clan interests and not the interests of Kosovo. The leaders of the two major parties are increasingly weak leaders who have no decision-making power. Meanwhile, Kurti should from the outset present public proposals on how the names of the candidates should be determined and on the criteria that should be applied. In this way he becomes credible to the public and beyond contestation from the opposition,” he says.