Albin Kurti given 48 hours to form new Kosovan government

By bne IntelliNews January 7, 2020

Kosovo’s President Hashim Thaci said on January 6 he has given the leader of Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti, 48 hours to ask for a mandate to form a new government in order to avoid a constitutional crisis.

Kurti’s party took the largest share of the vote in the October 6 snap general election, and has been in talks with the second ranked party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), for months, but so far the two have failed to agree on a new government. 

After Thaci’s ultimatum, Kurti has to ask for a mandate or propose a prime minister candidate by January 8 if he is to form a new cabinet. It is not clear what Thaci’s next steps will be if he fails to do so.

“I hope that Kurti may be able to nominate a candidate for PM within 48 hours, as people, the parliament, our allies are expecting him to do so,“ Thaci said in a tweet, adding that if he fails to do so the country will face an “unnecessary constitutional crisis”.

“Kurti finally came to my office to commit the constitutional duty of asking for a PM mandate. He unfortunately didn’t do so. We are now running very late in government formation,” Thaci said.

The same day Kurti said in an unclear tweeted message that he had selected members for the cabinet from Vetevendosje and called on LDK to do the same.

Talks between the two parties previously stalled due to the LDK’s insistence on having the right to choose Kosovo’s next president after Thaci's mandate ends in 2021. 

If Vetevendosje and LDK reach agreement on the new coalition government and Kurti receives a mandate, he will have 15 days to form the new cabinet that would then need to be elected in the 120-seat parliament in a majority vote.

If Vetevendosje and LDK fail to form a government, Kosovo will most likely have to hold new elections.

 

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