Thaci: I, the most legitimate president (Voice of America/Insajderi)

Hashim Thaci, leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, is claiming he will be the most legitimate President ever elected in Kosovo. Thaci is expected to be elected President by the Kosovo Assembly next week. 80 MPs need to be present for a quorum, and 61 votes in favor are required in an eventual third round of voting. The opposition meanwhile has warned it will prevent Thaci’s election. Thaci told the Voice of America on Friday: “I am not the candidate of a certain individual; I am the candidate of a joint agreement between the two biggest parties in the country, the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo and the other coalition partners ... I can also say that the next President of Kosovo will be one of the most legitimate presidents of the Republic”.

Haziri: LDK will vote for Thaci President (RTK)

Lutfi Haziri, deputy leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), said on Friday that the ruling coalition agreement between the LDK and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) must be respected. Commenting on the refusal of some LDK MPs to vote for PDK leader Hashim Thaci as President of Kosovo, Haziri said the PDK voted in favor of LDK leader Isa Mustafa as Prime Minister of Kosovo and that the LDK will vote in favor of Thaci’s candidacy for president.

Pacolli: Riots would follow Thaci’s election for President (Klan Kosova)

In an interview for Klan Kosova on Friday, Behxhet Pacolli, leader of the New Kosovo Alliance (AKR), said the government holds the biggest share of responsibility for the current crisis. Pacolli said the opposition too is responsible “because throwing teargas in the Kosovo Assembly is an irresponsible act”. “I see no more cooperation, because we have already seen violence from both sides, by the opposition and also by the law enforcement authorities that used brutality to expel MPs from the Assembly ... I have always condemned the use of teargas because it portrays a bad image. The situation however deteriorated to an unbearable point when MPs were expelled with force,” he said. Pacolli argued that if he were Prime Minister, he would try to find a political solution together with the opposition and set a date for early parliamentary elections. According to Pacolli, Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader Hashim Thaci’s election as President of Kosovo will trigger riots in Kosovo. “Something tells me that the ruling coalition will not be long-lived,” he added.

Ramush Haradinaj resigns his MP seat (media)

All media report that Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), resigned his MP seat on Friday. “Seeing that the Assembly of Kosovo has turned into an institution that covers up the constitutional violations of the government; seeing that the Assembly has turned into a place where MPs are dragged away by the police following political orders; and seeing the arbitrary expulsion of opposition MPs from the Assembly, I hereby submit my irrevocable resignation as member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo,” Haradinaj wrote in a public letter. “During my mandate as MP, I tried to express serious concerns over issues that concern the country, including the mistakes made with the signing of the two disputed agreements, the Demarcation and the Association [the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro and the agreement on the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities], but I was ignored by the usurpers of the government and the Assembly. As a result of this ignorance and the extreme irresponsibility by the government leaders, my only course of action remained the logic of opposition through teargas. After today, I believe that the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, is no longer a democratic institution and I do not see myself as of this legislature.”

Kryeziu: The international community allowed crime and corruption in Kosovo (media)

Several news sites quote Eqrem Kryeziu, one of the former leaders of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), as saying that in the post-war period, the international community in Kosovo allowed crime and corruption for the sake of stability. According to Kryeziu, “the international community, through UNMIK, employed people from the communist dictatorship that were trained to serve as slaves and state-ruiners”.