Kosovo’s outgoing Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused US envoy Richard Grenell on April 20 of being directly involved in overthrowing his government in March, calling it a "coup d’etat”.

Kurti, who was ousted by a no-confidence vote in March 25 but remains in office pending the formation of a new government, says he was removed as the diplomat — dubbed “Trump’s favourite ambassador” — saw him as standing in the way of a deal with Serbia. 

Kurti was speaking at an online news conference hosted by Vienna-based PresseClub Concordia. While the conference was not broadcast publicly, he was followed on Twitter by journalist and political scientist Jasmin Mujanovic and his comments were later published by newswires. 

Grenell, according to Kurti, wants a quick agreement with Serbia, which will include a swap of territories between the two countries

An agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, is being pursued by Washington and would be a rare diplomatic coup for US President Donald Trump’s administration. Since Grenell’s appointment he has already claimed a breakthrough with agreements on restoring transport links between Belgrade and Pristina. 

“Kurti suggests that Grenell has been so aggressive on pushing for a deal on Kosovo-Serbia so he can deliver a political win for Trump in an elxn year, and contrast his admin to Clinton, Bush, and Obama admins, clinching a deal w/o military involvement,” tweeted Mujanovic from the online press conference. 

However, Kurti, who is opposed to a swap of territories, has made it clear that any agreement with Serbia will require the approval of Kosovan citizens.

Talks on the swap of territories started during the mandate of former EU High Representative Federica Mogherini and they are being led directly by the offices of Kosovan President HashimThaci and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Such an agreement would most likely involve the Presevo valley in Serbia, populated mainly by ethnic Albanians, being exchanged for Serb-dominated areas of northern Kosovo. Critics of the idea say that redrawing borders in the Western Balkans could set a dangerous precedent. 

Since coming to office, Kurti sought to wrest control of the negotiating process away from Thaci, saying it would be handled by his government.

“My government wasn’t overthrown for anything else but simply because ambassador Grenell is in a rush to sign a deal with Serbia which I strongly believe is harmful since it includes territorial exchange,” Kurti was cited as saying.

Kurti’s Vetevendosje took the largest share of the vote in the October 2019 election as voters fed up with corruption, poverty and unemployment turned away from established parties to his party that grew out of a left-wing nationalist protest movement. 

It took four months for Vetevendosje to form a government with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) as its junior coalition partner. However, after just 50 days in power, Kurti’s government collapsed on March 25, losing the no-confidence vote initiated the LDK after a series of disagreements between the two parties.

Kurti said that the LDK "cracked" under pressure from Grenell.

Kurti added that Grenell had “hijacked” the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue process and “cares very much about the signature at the bottom of the paper not about the text on the paper.”

The US special envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue immediately denied accusations of discussing an exchange of territories.

“There has been absolutely no talk of land swaps from me - and it’s never been discussed by anyone else in my presence. We have said this many times,” Grenell said in a tweet following Kurti's online news conference.

Following the ousting of Kurti's government, Kosovo is in a state of political limbo as efforts to form a new government have so far failed. Kurti has refused to nominate a new prime minister from his party, saying that new elections should be held, while Thaci is pushing for the current parliament to form a new government as he says elections are impossible during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.