Murati: PDK was absent from the constitutive session, LVV agreed to support its candidates

Following the conclusion of the process of constituting the Kosovo Assembly, acting Finance Minister Hekuran Murati said the procedure ended without the election of one of the deputy speakers because the PDK did not put forward a candidate and did not attend the session.

According to Murati, the Democratic Party of Kosovo had spent weeks calling for the Assembly to be constituted, but on the day the conditions for the process to take place were created, it chose to boycott it.

“Today’s Assembly session is closing successfully. The main issue was not the constitution of the Assembly itself, but the election of the president, which in the previous term led the country toward elections. To resolve this problem, we believed there needed to be an agreement before the constitution of the Assembly,” Murati declared.

He described the absence of the PDK parliamentary group from the chamber as irresponsible.

“The Assembly was constituted, but it remained without one deputy speaker because the PDK parliamentary group refused to nominate its candidate. It is regrettable that this group, after protesting outside the government for many weeks and repeatedly calling for the constitution of the Assembly, decided on the day this became possible not to fulfill its responsibility and to boycott the constitutive session,” he said.

Murati said the Vetëvendosje Movement was prepared to vote for the opposition’s candidates for deputy speakers, with the aim of overcoming the institutional deadlock.

“To unblock the situation and move forward, we agreed to vote for their candidates, even if we did not agree with them and had not previously reached a political agreement, as required by the Constitutional Court. This shows how seriously they treated this issue,” Murati said.

He recalled that the Constitutional Court had previously interpreted the right of parliamentary groups to nominate members of the Assembly’s presidency.

“Last year, when we nominated Albulena Haxhiu for speaker of the Assembly, the Constitutional Court clarified that parliamentary groups cannot be denied their constitutional right to nominate members of the presidency. However, their election requires parliamentary groups to secure political agreement and 61 votes,” he said.

According to Murati, the other parliamentary parties failed to reach an agreement with LVV, despite Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s invitation to meet.

“The other parliamentary groups did not reach an agreement with the Vetëvendosje Movement. Prime Minister Kurti invited them to discuss and find a solution, but the invitation was not accepted and no agreement was reached. Despite this, we decided to proceed so that the Assembly could be constituted and the institutions could be formed,” Murati concluded.

Regarding the vote by the deputy from the Serb List and LVV’s position toward the party, Murati said Vetëvendosje’s main objective had been to prevent new elections and reach an agreement on the election of the president.

“For us, it has always been essential to secure the election of the country’s president. In the previous term, the Assembly and the government were formed in record time, and there was no problem in this regard. The crisis emerged over the election of the president, after the opposition did not remain in the chamber, sending the country to elections,” Konjufca said.

He added that, precisely to prevent this development from being repeated, LVV had sought a political agreement before the constitution of the Assembly and the start of the deadlines.

“To avoid another electoral process at all costs, the Vetëvendosje Movement insisted that an agreement be reached before the constitution of the Assembly and before the constitutional deadlines began to run,” he said.

Murati said that LVV had reached an agreement with the Democratic League of Kosovo, but it was not supported by all of that party’s deputies.

“We reached an agreement with the Democratic League of Kosovo, but it cannot be considered complete because the LDK and some of its deputies expressed reservations about the agreement and the consensus candidate, Professor Doctor Bekim Sejdiu,” he said.

According to him, LVV had decided to support the candidates of the other parties for deputy speakers, on the condition that they attend the session and create the possibility for the president to be elected.

“As part of the political agreement, we would use our 53 votes for their candidates for deputy speakers. In return, they had to agree to attend the session, at least by voting against, so that the election of the president could take place. This was the purpose of this formula,” he declared.

When the opposition refused to take part in the process, LVV, according to Murati, decided to stop holding up the constitution of the Assembly.

“When it became clear that they intended to continue the blockade and had no interest in constituting the Assembly, we decided to act rationally. The Assembly was constituted, and now we hope that this goodwill on the part of the Vetëvendosje Movement will be understood as such. The other opposition deputies must reflect and, at the session for the election of the president, remain in the chamber and vote so that the country does not go to elections again,” he said.

Asked about the vote by the deputy from the Serb List, Konjufca said that the position of deputy speaker representing the Serb community, as a non-majority community, is determined by the Constitution. He said the Constitutional Court’s decision recognizes this right of the Serb List.

“The Constitution clearly defines the issue of the deputy speaker who comes from the Serb community, which is a non-majority community. During the previous year, in the 2015 legislature, we objected and continued the procedure for voting on Mr. Nenad Rašić,” he said.

Konjufca explained that, according to the Constitutional Court, the position of deputy speaker belongs to the Serb List as long as this party constitutes the majority of Serb deputies in the Assembly.

“At the beginning of 2026, the Constitutional Court ruled that if the Serb List has the majority of deputies from the Serb community, no other candidate may be nominated. Therefore, the Constitutional Court, not us, granted the Serb List the right to this position,” he declared.

He stressed that in previous legislatures, LVV had voted against candidates from the Serb List, aiming to have another representative of the non-majority Serb community elected to the presidency.

“In previous legislatures, we voted against all candidates from the Serb List, with the aim of securing the election of the only candidate who did not belong to this list. But the Constitutional Court’s decision at the beginning of this year established that this position belongs to the Serb List for as long as it has the majority of deputies from the non-majority Serb community in the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo,” he added.