What happens if you fail to form a coalition?

The eventual failure of negotiations between the Vetevendosje Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo for reaching the ruling coalition agreement would bring all other spare options to the table, including new elections or technical government, political analysts say.

The current mandate for forming the government, Albin Kurti, chairman of Vetevendosje, has remained less than a week, constitutional deadline, to reach agreement and form the government.

If it fails, the flow of the second ten-day constitutional deadline begins, which analysts express differing thoughts about whether Vetevendosje's right to propose the mandate would be passed by a party or another coalition that secures the parliamentary majority in the assembly.

Naim Rashit, director of the Balkan Policy Group in Kosovo, tells Radio Free Europe, that both parties -- the Vetevendosje Movement and the Democratic League of Kosovo -- are stuck in solids, which are showing more lack of distrust in each other than in actual division of the posts. He considers that the current situation could lead to two directions or two options.

The first “version is for the second mandate to be proved by someone else -- that is, to form a government, another parliamentary majority, which the president of the state will certainly seek, if the Vetevendosje Movement fails to create the parliamentary majority. And the next version is probably a temporary technical government by autumn, to create conditions for normal functioning of institutions and then new elections in autumn”, Rashi said.

Currently, Vetevendosje and the LDK -- at least according to public statements -- have stated that they have disagreed over the division of power. While Vetevendosje as the winning party, the LDK has not contested the prime minister's position, it has demanded that as a balance in power sharing, the position of the speaker of the assembly, which it has taken under the direction of Vetevendosje since the Assembly's constitutionalised date on December 26th.

The LDK demands the position of speaker of the assembly until the day of the election of the new president, urging Vetevendosje to support its candidate for president. With the president's election, the LDK has expressed readiness to return Vetevendosje's post of mayor. Such a formula has so far been rejected by Vetevendosje.

Naim Rashit says that if Kosovo moves towards new elections, then the party or parties that would negotiate government formation and power division could also talk about the position of the next president, as the election of the new president is expected sometime in the spring of 2021.

Meanwhile, political analyst Imer Mushkolaj says that in the event talks between the Vetevendosje Movement and LDK fail, all actions must be taken in line with the Kosovo Constitution.

Under the Constitution, we know that the winner of the election should be given once more opportunity, but with another mandate, and if it fails even then, the president remains to use his discretion, which may be translated as an opportunity for the next largest parliamentary group, which is to be the Democratic League of Kosovo”, Mushkolaj said.

According to him, if Vetevendosje and LDK are declared not to make coalitions with any other party, then that means the country must go to new elections.

“The solution remains to organise new elections if there is no other option in the meantime, in the sense that there may be international pressure due to deadlines, to say preset, especially on reaching the agreement with Serbia. So, in order to create a government which could have a broader basis and would have a major goal of ending dialogue with Serbia and reaching a comprehensive” agreement, Mushkolaj said.

After the Kosovo Parliament's binding on December 26th, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, on January 20th, has mandated Vetevendosje Movement leader Albin Kurti for the prime minister's post.

Under the Constitution, from the moment President Thaci mandates Kurti for prime minister, the flow of the 15-day constitutional deadline for the establishment of the executive.

For several weeks Vetevendosje and the Democratic League have continued the meetings, but they have not resulted in any coalition agreement.

If the agreement is not reached the following days, at the beginning of next week, on February 3rd, Prime Minister Kurti is expected to declare whether the negotiations have brought any agreement or have ultimately failed.

Currently, Kosovo is governed by the incumbent government, led by incumbent Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, but has limited competencies.