07 Nov 14
Five months on from the elections, as Kosovo’s leaders come under increasing pressure to form a new government, an exit strategy from the current impasse has yet to appear.
Nektar Zogjani
BIRN
Pristina
The US ambassador to Kosovo, Tracey Jacobson, delivered a colourful message to Kosovo leaders on Thursday, using an expletive in Albanian to urge them to reach an agreement to form a government. “Don’t s– on it,” Jacobson said, in a message that made international news.
Her comments came amid conflicting messages from the coalition of four parties that have united to oust the outgoing Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci and his Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK.
The Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, hinted this week that it might relinquish its claim to the post of parliament speaker in order to ease formation of a government.
Meanwhile, its partner, the Self-Determination Movement, has floated the idea of organising public protests against the PDK’s “capture of the state”.
The LDK had been promised the speaker’s post as part of a deal with its coalition partners, Self-Determination, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK and NISMA.
However, Thaci’s PDK is the sole party that has the right to nominate the speaker according to a ruling from the Constitutional Court, although it lacks the votes to elect one.
The impasse has left Kosovo without a new government five months after the June 8 general elections.
Self-Determination’s organizational secretary, Dardan Molliqaj, said his party had held discussions with its coalition partners about organizing street protests “as a way of opposing the capture of the state of Kosovo by the PDK.
“In conditions when the parliamentary minority has totally captured public institutions and is using those institutions for the interests of PDK people, protests are totally legitimate,” Molliqaj told Balkan Insight.
However, a political analyst Albert Krasniqi, from KIPRED, a think tank, said street protests were premature.
“It is early to speak about such radical steps, since not all options have been exhausted to establish institutions on the basis of the will of the majority,” Krasniqi said.
Krasniqi said he was also not sure if protests would change anything. It would depend on the turnout, “and it seems as if the citizens have been quite passive recently”.
Meanwhile, while the PDK has continued to press other parties to enter into a coalition, it has yet to succeed.
The party has the largest share of MPs – 37 – but is well short of the majority it needs in the 120-seat parliament.
If the crisis continues, and Kosovo’s leaders are unable to form a government, the PDK has said the country should hold new elections.
