Coalition between the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Alliance for Future of Kosovo (AAK), Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA) and Vetevendosje will wait until Monday for the chairperson of the Assembly’s constitutive session, Flora Brovina, to call for the next session and give it the right to propose a candidate for speaker.

A source within the bloc said that if Brovina fails to do so, the post-election coalition will undertake necessary measures to constitute the new Assembly.

General Secretary of the Democratic League of Kosovo Ismet Beciri, who is also MP in the Assembly, expressed the hope that the Serbian list will eventually support the opposition bloc in the establishment of Kosovo institutions.

In its front-page editorial, the paper writes that the battle for power is coming at a high cost for Kosovo. While certain politicians claim that there is no crisis and the current situation is normal for a democratic country, the consequences of not forming new institutions will be serious for all sectors.  The decision of the Constitutional Court that was intended to unblock the situation had an opposite effect and only solidified the positions of the parties while the president’s intervention is not expected to result in any breakthrough, writes the paper.

The coalition of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and the Initiative of Kosovo (NISMA) and the Vetevendosje Movement issued a joint statement after today’s session of the Kosovo Assembly. “The coalition of the LDK-AAK-NISMA and Vetevendosje Movement, after today’s constitutive session, takes note of the PDK’s failure to elect the Assembly President and to establish the Assembly. Even 100 days after general elections proved to be not enough for the PDK to secure a majority in the Assembly.

Serb members of the Kosovo Assembly abstained from voting for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) candidate for Assembly President Arsim Bajrami. Serbian List leader Aleksandar Jablanovic said the Serb vote today would not have determined anything. “The List will continue to be constructive in the upcoming sessions. We want the crisis to be resolved and to proceed with the formation of the government … We know that we will not go with Vetevendosje and the revision of negotiations.

British Ambassador to Kosovo, Ian Cliff, said today after the session of Assembly that Kosovo should not go to extraordinary elections. Cliff told reporters that the international community will not interfere to resolve the crisis because the solution rests in the hands of political parties. Cliff also said that President Atifete Jahjaga needs to take hold of the situation and break the political deadlock.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) candidate for Assembly President, Arsim Bajrami, did not get enough votes in today’s constitutive session. 44 MPs voted in favor of Bajrami, 61 voted against and 11 MPs abstained from voting. Assembly chairperson Flora Brovina said she needs to interrupt the session and said she would inform MPs in writing about the date of the next assembly session.

Publicist Halil Matoshi in his weekly column for the paper writes that the Constitutional Court has left no legal mechanism available for the parliamentary majority to be able to nominate and elect its candidate to the post of Assembly speaker. Being that, as Matoshi says, the president of Kosovo and the Constitutional Court openly support the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the opposition bloc has no other solution but to resist with legal means “capturing of the state”.

An international diplomat spoke to Gazeta Blic on anonymity conditions and said that “the recent developments in the Constitutional Court have been more than unfortunate and have made Quint countries, in particular, review their position after the session”. The source said that Thursday’s session is expected to be a repeat of the one from 17 July but this time around, it will be the international community that will decide, either through the president or on its own.

Andrea Capussela who worked for the former International Civilian Office in Kosovo observes in an opinion piece for the paper that although he has not too much respect for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Alliance for Future of Kosovo (AAK) or Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA), he does believe that Kosovo could use a change and if Vetevendosje joins in, institutions would become cleaner. Capussela’s message therefore to LDK, AAK and NISMA is to remove the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) from power and take it themselves.