• COVID – 19: 350 new cases, 18 deaths (media)
• Hoxhaj: President post belongs to the PDK (media)
• Konjufca: Vetevendosje doesn’t want post of Kosovo President (T7)
• Mustafa: Vetevendosje is seeing dreams that it can win 50% of votes (media)
• Bytyci: Red lines in politics are being removed (media)
• Kosovo Acting President Osmani begins 3-day visit to Albania (media)
• Serbia cuts off energy transmission to Kosovo (RFE)
• Russian Foreign Minister: EU to be impartial in the dialogue (media)
• Serbian List to meet Serbian President Vucic (Gazeta Express)
• Captured states in Western Balkans and Turkey (Transparency International)

COVID – 19: 350 new cases, 18 deaths (media)

350 new cases of COVID – 19 and 18 deaths from the virus were recorded in the last 24 hours in Kosovo. 584 persons recovered from the virus during this time. There are 12,862 active cases of COVID – 19 in Kosovo.

Hoxhaj: President post belongs to the PDK (media)

Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) Acting Leader Enver Hoxhaj said in an interview with Balkan Talks on Tuesday that the post of Kosovo President belongs to this party, after Hashim Thaci resigned following a confirmed indictment by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague. “We are in a very divisive situation and at the same time the interest in Kosovo is waving every day,” he said.

Hoxhaj said that if the PDK will be part of an agreement to elect the new President of Kosovo, then they must propose the candidate. “They need to give us a chance after the forceful departure of Mr. Thaci. If someone asks for the votes of the PDK, then the proposal must come from the PDK. We will propose someone who can be a member of the [PDK] presidency or a member of the Kosovo Assembly or a new member of our party,” he said.

Asked if the PDK has received an invitation to become part of the ruling coalition, Hoxhaj said no such invitation was made yet. “We haven’t received such an invitation yet and we have had no interest to get an invitation. We expressed our interest to help Kosovo through LDK leader Mustafa to invite the political parties to a roundtable of national consensus to elect the President,” he added.

The Kurti-led Vetevendosje Movement (VV) said after a recent victory in the municipality of Podujevo that they are ready for early parliamentary elections, but Hoxhaj said that they have not received any invitation from VV yet. “They can send us an invitation and we will take the country to early elections,” he was quoted as saying.

Konjufca: Vetevendosje doesn’t want post of Kosovo President (T7)

Vetevendosje Movement (VV) deputy leader Glauk Konjufca said in an interview with T7 on Tuesday that this party does not want the post of Kosovo President and that they want Kosovo to go to early parliamentary elections before a new President is elected.

“We can collect 30 signatures and nominate a candidate from the Vetevendosje Movement, but the point is not to nominate a President that causes a debate of disagreements between the political forces,” he said.

Konjufca said that Vetevendosje has exclusive preferences to cooperate with Vjosa Osmani, current Acting President of Kosovo. “The others have no advantage because they all joined forces against Vetevendosje … It is certain that the Vetevendosje Movement will win the new elections. The LDK is no different from the PDK and AAK, when Vjosa Osmani is no longer part of it,” he added.

Mustafa: Vetevendosje is seeing dreams that it can win 50% of votes (media)

Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leader Isa Mustafa said on Tuesday that he hopes leaders of political parties will meet before the end of this year to discuss solutions for the post of Kosovo President. “I had planned for us to meet last week, but they have their reasons and their positions. We need to have a roundtable without conditions. If we don’t reach an agreement, we can always try again,” he said.

Mustafa argued that it would not be dramatic even if Kosovo goes to early parliamentary elections. “If there is no readiness to elect a President now, then those who say that Vetevendosje will win 50 percent of votes in the elections are seeing dreams. Even if they would win 50 percent of votes, they would not be able to elect a President,” Mustafa added.

Bytyci: Red lines in politics are being removed (media)

Avni Bytyci, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that the red lines in politics are being removed. “The end of 2020 is marking the beginning of the removal of red lines in politics! Interesting,” he wrote.

Kosovo Acting President Osmani begins 3-day visit to Albania (media)

Most media report that Kosovo Acting President Vjosa Osmani will begin today her three-day visit to Albania today where she will meet her Albanian counterpart, Ilir Meta, Assembly President Gramoz Ruci, Prime Minister Edi Rama, Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha, Tirana Mayor Erion Velijaj and former Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Serbia cuts off energy transmission to Kosovo (RFE)

Serbia has cut off the transmission of 500 megawatts of electricity to Kosovo immediately after the latter’s energy transmission system started operating independently, Nebih Zariqi, a member of the board of the Kosovo Energy Transmission System and Market (KOSTT) told the news website on Tuesday. He added that the megawatts blocked by Serbia were replaced by an agreement between Kosovo and North Macedonia.

Russian Foreign Minister: EU to be impartial in the dialogue (media)

The European Union must be impartial in its role as mediator in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade on Tuesday.

“Our position remains unchanged. We are committed to seek a compromise based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and we will support only a decision that suits Serbia,” Lavrov told reporters after the meeting.

Lavrov said Russia regrets that the European Union cannot influence the implementation of agreements reached so far in the talks between Belgrade and Prishtina, primarily on the formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo.

Serbian List to meet Serbian President Vucic (Gazeta Express)

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will meet the political and institutional representative of Kosovo Serbs in Belgrade today. Petar Petkovic, head of the Serbian Government’s office for Kosovo, will also be attending the meeting. Serbian List representatives will give a press conference after the meeting.

Captured states in the Western Balkans and Turkey (Transparency International)

A law passed in Albania has given A.N.K Sh.P.K., a company close to the ruling Socialist Party, a hugely overpriced contract for building a 17.2 km road. The construction costs are expected to be almost €300 million, over twice the amount the government had envisaged. In Turkey, a law reclassified a protected wetland so that Istanbul’s new airport could be built on it. Six people in Macedonia are accused of laundering around €4.5 million to finance the VMRO-DPMNE political party. Among them is former prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who is also implicated in several other corruption scandals.

These are examples of state capture, when powerful individuals and groups use corruption to shape a nation’s policies, laws and economy to benefit their own private interests. It allows the corrupt to maintain their power, get rich from the state and avoid punishment.

Ordinary citizens pay for this through loss of livelihood, poor public services, limited opportunities and by losing trust in democracy as they see government institutions serve private interests.

This is happening at all levels of government – from local authorities to the executive – in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. Here, chains of loyalty and mutual benefits are leading officials to abuse their office and tighten the grip of a few networks on these countries.

A new Transparency International report on the Western Balkans and Turkey reveals the causes of this state capture, as well as two enabling factors that allow it to happen: undue influence on the judiciary and on law-making.

Read more at: https://bit.ly/3oUBnoj