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Kosovo Opposition Splits Boost Thaci’s Chances (Balkan Insight)

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18 Nov 14

As the opposition coalition starts falling apart in a tussle over which party should get the Prime Minister’s post, Hashim Thaci’s party is eyeing its chances of forming another government.

Nektar Zogjani
BIRN

Pristina

A coalition formed after the June general elections with the aim of toppling the rule of Hashim Thaci and his Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, is in danger of dissolving without achieving its goal.

The coalition brought together the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, and the Initiative for Kosovo – and is supported from the outside by the Vetevendosje [Self-Determination] Movement.

However, battles over which party should get the post of Prime Minister have turned into a source of discord between the two major partners in the coalition.

The original agreement was for the LDK to get the post of the speaker while Ramush Haradinaj from the AAK was nominated as the candidate for the post of prime minister.

However, following the coalition’s failure to elect the assembly speaker, owing to a ruling by Constitutional Court, which assigned this right to the PDK, disagreements have emerged inside the coalition.

Verbal spats between representatives of the LDK and AAK escalated over the past few days with each party insisting it had the right to the prime ministerial post.

LDK representatives argue that now Mustafa cannot become the speaker, this party cannot remain without one of the major leading post in the government.

“It is the decision of the party presidency that we should have the post of Prime Minister because we have the majority in this coalition, and we will insist on this,” Arban Abrashi of the LDK told a press conference.

Ahmet Isufi, a member of AAK presidency, has since refused to rule out the possibility of going in with Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, despite having repeatedly rejected the idea of a coalition with Thaci.

“We still believe that the coalition has to form the new government,” Isufi said, apparently watering down the party’s earlier stance, which categorically ruled out any cooperation with the PDK.

The departure of either of LDK or AAK from the coalition will make it impossible for them to form a majority government and will hand the initiative back to the PDK.

The PDK won most votes in the June parliamentary elections, but with only 37 of the 120 deputies in the assembly, it needs to lure at last one of the parties in the post-election opposition coalition to its side to get the the 61 votes needed to elect a new government.

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