Is the wish of Hashim Thaqi to again become Kosovo Prime Minister maybe the main reason why last Brussels round of talks didn’t result in agreement between Belgrade and Pristina? Will the establishment of the Special Court for crimes committed by KLA (whose leader was Thaqi) be a trigger to terminate the coalition with Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and result in the new elections?
The representatives of the Serbian Parties from Kosovo think that Hashim Thaqi plays the “double game” and that the main aim of the game is organizing the early parliamentary elections. The leader of the opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, is openly opting for the early elections: “I don’t believe that people will stand long. I believe that the exit from this situation is in early elections.”
“I agree partially with Haradinaj because this government has done nothing for almost a year. I don’t believe that leader of the Alliance is having a goal to crumble the Brussels agreement, since at this point such move would be extremely dangerous. If this government fails to manage to adopt the Law on Special Court till next week, it should really consider resignation,” said Nenad Rasic the Leader of Progressive Democratic Party and MP in the Kosovo government.
Aleksandar Jablanovic president of the Serbian List believes that early elections do not depend from Albanians, but from the plans of the international community. He adds that Haradinaj is having a wish for the early elections, because he has nothing to lose, but he forgets that he does not have great support of the electorate, as presented by the recent surveys.
Eight MPs of Thaqi’s PDK didn’t vote for the constitutional changes related to the establishment of the Special Court, despite the fact Thaqi allegedly lobbied for it. Pristina media speculate that it is Thaqi’s clever political maneuver, by which he protects him and his KLA compatriots from the criminal prosecution.
In case of Kosovo’s early elections, which could be organized earliest at the beginning of the next year, the Brussels dialogue would be postponed for indefinite time. Consequently it is almost certain that Serbia would not start accession talks with the EU, at the end of this year.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Johannes Hahn already sent a message to the EU Representative for the Foreign Policy and Security Federica Mogherini, asking her to schedule the new meeting between Serbian and Kosovo PM. Hahn believes that during the summer pause the situation could additionally complicate, so that meeting should be scheduled as soon as possible.
