New elections, Kosovo opposition target

The political subject that is encouraging the rest of the political spectrum in the country for early elections is the Democratic League of Kosovo, which, although in the opposition, currently constitutes the largest parliamentary group.

MP Arben Gashi, from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), told Radio Free Europe that a minority government cannot lead the country, so according to him, the country must go to the polls as soon as possible.

 When there is political crisis and loss of legitimacy, the most direct and shorter way of restoring legitimacy and democratic and institutional representation is through elections. Under these circumstances, the LDK prefers to go into elections in order to have legitimate institutions and representatives”, Gashi said.

On the other hand, Democratic Party of Kosovo chairman, Kosovo Speaker Kadri Veselin, has said he is not seeing too serious the proposals for the election of the Democratic League of Kosovo.

He has stressed that he does not know how ready his colleagues are from the opposition for elections, or are calling only to take political points.

But, MP Arben Gashi says that a situation that could greatly damage the country's democratic future has developed from recent developments in Kosovo. Therefore, according to him, solutions should be found that reverse the functioning of state institutions.

“We are in a sensitive situation, and particularly developments last week have proved this Government has lost democratic legitimacy and the reasonableness of representation. There is no control over its institutions and there is no co-ordination with the inter-institutions, with institutions which are interdependent as the Kosovo Intelligence Agency or the Kosovo Police, or co-operation between the president and prime minister, or taking competencies arbitraryly from the president and others. So, a serious situation has been created in Kosovo”, Gashi said.

Meanwhile, the Vetevendosje Movement, which is undergoing a difficult moment after the departure of a large number of MPs and its officials, considers there are many reasons why this Government should resign. Tinka Kurti from the media office in Vetevendosje told Radio Free Europe that this political subject stands behind the demand that this Government should fall as soon as possible.

This government, once in power, has done a series of scandals and has to fall because it has brought the agreement on demarcation to the Parliament, very harmful deals. Also, this Government has to fall because of the raise in salaries for itself, due to the large number of deputy ministers because there are large power cuts, due to the exemption of the Kosovar Agency of Discension from the quality registry. All of this and the overall state of unemployment and poverty are reasons that this Government should resign as soon as possible and that the country should go to new elections”, Kurti said.

On the other hand, political analyst Petrit Zogaj says opposition political parties' demands to go to new elections are standard requirements. According to him, if these political parties really want to go to the polls, then they should also initiate the necessary procedures.

The opposition must testify if Ramush Haradinaj's government does not have the parliamentary majority, so it calls for no-confidence motion and in that no-confidence motion wins the opposition option, wins the LDK in this case its initiative and the government falls immediately. So it is not enough to say that you have to go to the elections, but that no-confidence motion to be initiated”, Zogaj said.

Zogaj points out that there is no proper or inappropriate time for early elections when there are major crises.

I don't actually see that we are in a very big crisis, although there is a break in the institutional chain, but I don't necessarily see that last week's situation with the two problematic situations we had, produce government crisis and go to early”, Zogaj said.

Meanwhile, in the LDK they say political party representatives should meet as soon as they can talk about a quick election process. Another option that creates the majority government, without having to go to the polls, is for an opposition subject, in this case the LDK, to join the ruling coalition. But MP Arben Gashi rules out any possibility that LDK joins Haradinaj government.

“The LDK takes over its processes and normally creates coalitions on which it will move the processes forward, but according to processes itself, not by joining a minority prime minister's illegal government, a prime minister of a party with 10 MPs. The LDK cannot take such an action because it is at the expense of legitimate democratic representation and at the expense of Kosovo and the LDK”, Gashi said.

In the LDK, it is suggested that in addition to this new situation created, other opposition parties should reflect because the government cannot lead the country with insufficient number of votes in the Kosovo Assembly.

After confirming the removal of the Serbian List, the Kosovo government, which had been elected by 61 votes in the Assembly, remains officially now in the quota of 51 votes, meaning it has lost the majority.