Naser Sertolli claims in his column for the paper that although recent general elections in Kosovo were hailed as being free and fair, they failed to result in a clear winner and therefore risk destroying all the progress reached thus far. In this respect, 17 July is the D-Day, says Sertolli as the constitution of the new Assembly of Kosovo will be the first test of political maturity. There will be a number of challenges in the first Assembly session, considers Sertolli, starting from the seating arrangements of political parties up to the election of the Assembly Speaker.

As the session will be chaired by the oldest MP, Flora Brovina, who happens to come from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), it is very likely she may decide to give her party the right to propose a candidate for Speaker’s post and this is the moment when the session could be blocked, anticipates Sertolli.

Another viable scenario is for PDK to seek the interpretation of the Constitutional Court on the issue of who is entitled to propose a candidate for the Speaker and this way buy some time and prevent the other coalition to propose its own candidate. In the meantime, PDK could use this time to make different deals and maybe “buy” the support of some undecided MP from other parties and secure the majority in the Assembly. Remains to be seen whether the newly-elected MPs will be able to overcome their personal interests for the good of the country but be as it may, today’s session will most definitely be a major test for Kosovo, concludes Sertolli.