Are the LDK and LVV awaiting international coalition mediation?

These two political subjects are stuck in reaching the agreement for the new government, due to their disagreements over the position of future Kosovo president, who, under the constitutional mandate, must be resolved in the spring of 2021.

Since Kosovo has held parliamentary elections on 6 October and does not have a full-fledged government since July, when Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned, representatives of the European Union, representatives of the US and Great Britain have called on political parties in Kosovo to move faster towards the institution's constitutionalisation, especially the government.

“A rapid formation of the government is needed to advance these processes, in the interest of Kosovo and its people, and in line with the Constitution and the expressed desire of the electorate”, the EU statement said. And the US Embassy in Pristina reminded political parties that Kosovo's “people look forward to a Government that will bring positive changes”.

Even more direct about negotiations for the new government were members of the German Parliament, Peter Beyer and Christian Schmidt. During a media conference in Pristina, they delivered a message that now is the time for forming the government and not for electing the president.

After the elections, which were held in Kosovo, we think this is the final week for the establishment of government”, Schmidt said in this case.

Currently, the Vetevendosje Movement maintains the position that the agreement should only contain the division of government functions and the approval of the governing programme. Vetevendosje's option is that the post of prime minister, a deputy prime minister and five ministerial posts belong to Vetevendosje, while for LDK, envisions a deputy prime ministerial post and five ministries.

The LDK also wants to have agreements on the presidential post, which will be elected in 2021, offering Vetevendosje as “compensation”, to have leadership, not five, but six ministries.

Lulzim Peci from Institute K IPRED, thinks LDK's bid that Vetevendosje have six ministers and LDK have the country's president is correct and can set the governing balance.

“Unable to get out of party frameworks for electing the president, this option I think would be the best, if LDK were to propose a personality from its ranks that would meet the domestic and international representation requirements of Kosovo”, Peci wrote on Facebook.

But, quite another way, politicalologist Ramush Tahiri thinks, under which it would be unfair if now, a year and a half ago, reveal who will be Kosovo's next president.

“If the president is elected with the party, it means that a party leads the state”, Tahiri has said, further supporting the option the president must choose as a factor of unity.

While debates over the formation of the new government continue, it remains to be seen whether international representatives -- from the US and EU who are accredited in Kosovo -- will be involved to facilitate negotiations between LVV and LDK.

From experience from past election processes, Kosovo has not rarely faced blockades when it is in question to form new institutions, especially the government, so that international relief of interparty negotiations for the coalition government has often resulted in the constitutionalisation of new bodies.

In December 2014, the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo had reached coalition agreements only after negotiations between them were facilitated by international diplomats in Pristina.

After the 6 October elections, the institution's framework begins on Thursday, December 26th, with the Assembly's constitutional session. After the Assembly's transition, the phase of forming the government, which is expected to be a coalition government because the winning party, Vetevendosje, does not have sufficient numbers to form the new government itself.