Headlines - 02.08.2017

• LDK will not vote for Veseli (Zeri/Koha)
• Selimi: PAN coalition has no numbers to form government (Zeri)
• Mustafa meets Rugova family (dailies)
• Tahiri: Failure to elect Assembly President could lead to new elections (Epoka)
• Kosovo President Thaci to meet U.S. Vice President Pence (dailies)
• Serbia wants to “legalize” division of the north (Koha)

LDK will not vote for Veseli (Zeri)

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) leadership had a meeting yesterday ahead of the Kosovo Assembly’s constitutive session and its deputy leader, Agim Veliu, said their position against Kadri Veseli for Assembly Speaker remains unchanged. Veliu also said the party’s meeting was called to decide on who would lead its parliamentary group this term. Koha quotes sources saying that LAA coalition’s candidate for prime minister, Avdullah Hoti, will also be heading the LDK parliamentary group.

Selimi: PAN coalition has no numbers to form government (Zeri)

In an interview to the paper, Vetevendosje MP Rexhep Selimi, said it Vetevendosje would attend tomorrow’s constitutive session of the Assembly but would not support possible candidacy of Kadri Veseli as Speaker. Selimi said PAN would have to choose a more “suitable” candidate for the post. “Any other candidate would be better than him [Veseli]”, Selimi said. He noted that tomorrow’s session is yet another attempt to prolong formation of new institutions and that PAN has not secured enough votes to do so.

Mustafa meets Rugova family (dailies)

The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Isa Mustafa, visited yesterday the residence of the late President Ibrahim Rugova. His visit comes after that of PAN coalition’s candidate for prime minister Ramush Haradinaj to the family and amidst reports that Rugova’s daughter and LDK MP Teuta Rugova would vote for a Haradinaj-led government. Gazeta Express reported that Teuta Rugova was not present at the meeting with Mustafa and that it was certain she would vote for Haradinaj. However, Mustafa refuted such reports. In a Facebook post he said he had the pleasure to meet the family of the late president, including his daughter Teuta. “Reports published in a slanderous news website are failed attempts to cause confusion with the public”, Mustafa wrote.

Tahiri: Failure to elect Assembly President could lead to new elections (Epoka)

Political analyst Ramush Tahiri said in an interview to the paper that if Vetevendosje and the LDK-AKR-Alternativa coalition do not vote in favor of Kadri Veseli’s nomination for Assembly President, Kosovo could go to new elections. Tahiri said practice so far has shown that if MPs fail to elect a new Assembly President in three rounds of voting, the Assembly is dissolved and new elections must be held within 45 days. He also argued that according to the Constitution, the PDK-AAK-NISMA (PAN) coalition has the right to the post of Assembly President, and that “it is not right for Vetevendosje and LDK to impose a candidate on PAN”.

Kosovo President Thaci to meet U.S. Vice President Pence (dailies)

Most daily papers report that President of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, is expected to meet the U.S. Vice President, Mike Pence, in the framework of the meeting of the US-Adriatic Charter set to take place in Podgorica.

Serbia wants to “legalize” division of the north (Koha)

Political analysts in Pristina argue that recent statements by Serbian officials for a demarcation between Kosovo and Serbia are an attempt to divide the northern part of Kosovo, the paper reports on the front page. “This avalanche of statements is nothing but an effort for Serbia to take from Kosovo ‘what it already controls’ and not ‘to regain what it has lost a long time ago’, this is the northern part of Kosovo and extra-territoriality for Serb religious sites,” Pristina-based political analyst Behlul Beqaj told the paper. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic recently said that together with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic they would undertake the initiative for an internal dialogue on the Kosovo issue by dividing it “into what is Albanian and Serb”. “An agreement between Serbs and Albanians, this is the only permanent solution of compromise, with a special status for our churches and monasteries and with the Association of Serb municipalities in the southern part of Kosovo,” Dacic said.