Government hostage to five PSD conditions to pass budget in Parliament

The Social Democrat Party is determined not to vote on Kosovo's budget for 2019, on second reading, without meeting the five conditions set for Ramush Haradinaj's government.

The law on dialogue, the dismissal of Minister Nenad Rikalo, the law on salaries, the law on Government and the draft of the Kosovo pension code are the conditions set by the party of Shpend Ahmeti to vote on the draft budget of 2019.

PSD MP Shqipe Pantina has said they do not issue marks on their demands. It stresses that without meeting their demands, the government does not count on the vote of Social Democrat deputies.
For these PSD demands, the government had pledged that it would comply, but so far there is no concrete thing.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, when asked about the minister of agriculture's possible dismissal, has said the PSD's demands are legitimate and that he will respect but has not given a date when this dismissal could occur.

The government cannot count on the votes of the other two opposition parties -- the LDK and Vetevendosje -- as these parties have already turned against the budget, or even voted it in the first reading.
LDK MP chief Avdullah Hoti has already confirmed the vote against this year's budget bill, which will come up for second reading approval at the next session.

Hoti has said problematic is the budget structure, but also the approach the government has used to approve this year's budget. According to him, the budget is harmful and ill-structed.

Hoti's remarks have also been made regarding the division of capital spending in municipalities, which he claims has been unjustly divided. He says discrimination has been made in capital investments on party grounds, where he said that in municipalities the AAK leads go triple that in municipalities leading the LDK.

Neither the Vetevendosje Movement will vote this year's budget. This has been confirmed by the party's chief of deputies, Glauk Konjufca, who has said it is better that this budget will not pass at all and that it will not send the Haradinaj government home.

Konjufca has indicated that this budget does not address the main issues of Kosovo that society and state need, citing education and health.

Organisations dealing with monitoring the work of the Parliament have had their remarks about not voting the budget until this time.

Blerta Aliu from the Kosovo Democratic Institute has said the Assembly of Kosovo is neglecting the review of the Budget Bill.

Meanwhile, analyst Rasim Alija has said that conditions set by the PSD are good and should have the Government meet.

Alija has voiced confidence that conditions will be met and the budget will be voted.

The government has prosecuted the budget bill in the country on October 31st, which has managed to be adopted in principle in the Parliament on December 21st of the year we left behind.

Otherwise, representatives of the government coalition have said the budget will be adopted in second reading by the end of this month. /Kosovo pres/Periscopi