Thaci's name obstacles to consensus

Recently, the largest opposition party in the Kosovo Assembly, the Democratic League of Kosovo, has warned that it will reject the vote of the Kosovo Government's draft platform for the final phase of political dialogue with Serbia, in which, in addition, it is envisioned for the Kosovo team in this process to lead the country's president, Hashim Thaci.

Ilir Ibrahimi, political affairs analyst, tells Radio Free Europe that constitutional competencies enable President Thaci to lead the Kosovo team in dialogue with Serbia. But, according to him, in the case of dialogue, it is not just about implementing constitutional obligations, because dialogue with Serbia is a matter of high state interest, which requires participation of the entire political spectrum and building a consensus.

In this case, we have seen this LDK reaction, which has not accepted the platform. Consensus must be built not only to say that we have consensus but also to be participating in the development of this platform. We have seen that Government has prepared this platform and sent it to the Assembly and it would probably be much better that other political parties, which are expected to become part of this group that would build the consensus, were also part of building the platform, which would be used for dialogue”, Ibrahim said.

Political issue analyst Artan Muhhaxhiri, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says the opposition of the Democratic League of Kosovo for President Thaci to lead the Kosovo team into dialogue is somewhat understandable. But, according to him, in the LDK stance, offering an alternative is missing.

“If a political party of great importance, such as the LDK, opposes Thaci, then must give an alternative to who is the other political personality, which can be acceptable to the Kosovo political spectrum, to lead the final phase of the talks. I feel that the scenario of past years, where rejections are a priority, and in fact, are more connected to an individual's political figure than to the complex and political reality”, Muhrami points out.

Ibrahimi, however, says that if the main opposition party, in this case the LDK, is not going to be the part that would build a political spectrum consensus for dialogue, then it would be very difficult for Kosovo to reach the right agreement with Serbia in dialogue.

“We already know that there is a president in Serbia, who is almost almighty and we have a president in Kosovo who does not have the power, which the Serbian president has. If we get into dialogue without having this support of the political spectrum, then I believe that even in the negotiating position it will not be equal to (Aleksandar) Vuciqi on the other hand, it would damage Kosovo's” position, Ibrahim said.

Similar thoughts are shared by analyst Muharzir. As he says, the lack of a spectrum consensus regarding access to dialogue would seriously damage Kosovo's position in dialogue.

This harms it because Kosovo's political power, in the final phase of the dialogue, against Serbia and the EU, is even smaller, in the event it is driven by the division of Kosovo's political spectrum and with discontent, than if there was a unity, as was suppose during talks in Vienna”, Mujariri said.

The Democratic League of Kosovo, through a communiqué for media on Monday, has declared that <x0platform for dialogue, introduced in the Kosovo Government's Kosovo Assembly, is a poorly prepared, non-principled and non-binding document” and that the LDK Parliamentary Group in the Parliament will not vote on this platform.

Against President Thaci's leading role in the dialogue, the other opposition party, the Vetevendosje Movement, and the parties appointed within the ruling coalition has also indicated.