President Hashim Thaçi has announced he will take his “final steps” to ensure that a new government is formed in Kosovo, and has called for the dropping of reciprocity measures with Serbia.
Next week I’ll take the final constitutional steps to enable the formation of a new Government w/ full legitimacy from Parliament, capable to fight #COVID19 and serve the people. Tariffs & reciprocity need to be dropped in order to strengthen USA & EU support for Kosova.
— Hashim Thaçi (@HashimThaciRKS) April 19, 2020
Thaçi’s announced “final steps” suggests that he will ask the second largest party, Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) to form the new government, who has agreed on a coalition with opposition parties.
It comes after the president asked the largest party on April 2, Movement for Self-Determination (LVV) of Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti to nominate a prime minister designate. LVV has not submitted a nominee since then and maintains that the constitution demands the president to call early elections instead.
The president held consultation with political parties to understand where they stood regarding the two choices Thaçi claimed he had at his disposal after the Kurti Government was toppled: calling early elections or asking the largest party to form a new government.
LVV refused to attend consultations, claiming they were unconstitutional and a political move by Thaçi to make sure parties other than LVV were able to form a coalition. However, Kurti responded to the president’s call for a meeting, in his role of prime minister, but refused to talk matters related to political parties, and maintained that calling new elections were the only constitutional path for the president.
A few days later, the president chose to ask LVV to try get the parliament’s support for a new government only a few days after junior coalition partner LDK and opposition parties had ousted the LVV-led government.
Thaçi has reminded Kurti in three letters in the meantime that he will soon proceed with asking next party in line, if LVV does not submit a prime minister nominee.
So far, LVV has taken advantage of the fact that the constitution does not set a deadline for the nomination. Kurti wants to lead the government as acting prime minister until the coronavirus emergency passes, and then go to elections.
Despite Kurti’s repeated requests for the president to explain the constitutional basis for his decision not to call early elections but to push for a new government instead, Thaçi has not replied so far.
The political crisis in Kosovo is expected to deepen further, amidst the coronavirus emergency, if Thaçi sidesteps LVV and asks LDK to form the new government. The constitutional dispute around “new elections vs. new government” might end up in the Constitutional Court.
Additionally, in his tweet today, Thaçi has called for the need of Kosovo to strengthen the EU support by dropping tariffs and reciprocity measures with Serbia. Whilst tariffs were dropped on April 1 by the Kurti Government, the EU has not requested the dropping of temporary reciprocity measures it imposed on the same day. On the contrary, the move was praised by the European Commission.
The dropping of reciprocity measures has been demanded by the US Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Richard Grenell, who is pushing for a final agreement between the two countries, as well as by Serbia and Russia.
Thaçi’s pro-EU call marks a change in his stance, as it comes after the president has blasted the union’s alleged failure in mediating the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, of which he himself was the main Kosovo representative for several years, and slammed EU’s envoys Borrell and Lajcak.
