Without Agreement for President, country faces possibility of new elections

The ruling Vetevendosje Movement (LVV) party and opposition Democratic League (LDK) have failed to reach agreement to elect Kosovo's new president during a meeting Monday, and the parties warned that this was the last meeting between them.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, LVV leader Prime Minister Albin Kurti said LDK chairman Lumir Abdixhiku refused to accept his offers for a deal and indicated that he has already written the leader of the main opposition party, Bedri Hamza of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), for a possible meeting.

“I have to say that the talks were unsuccessful because none of our bids were accepted by LDK head”, Kurti said, warning that the country risks going back to early elections if the new president is not elected by 28 April.

He said he offered it to the LDK, in co-governance with other partners, to have the deputy prime minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and three other ministries.

In another bid, Kurti said he offered LDK the post of Kosovo Assembly Speaker.

“I have preferred my replacement to become exactly Abdixhiku, and thus start new chapter co-operation between LDK and LVV”, Kurti stressed.

Meanwhile, Abdixhiku stressed that he will no longer meet Kurt after the failure of the talks.

I tried, I tried, I didn't make it, unfortunately. Now I'm going back to the LDK and I'm going to go back to the big right union mission within LDK”, Abdixhiku said after the meeting, repeating his party's stance, that a party cannot lead the three main institutions in the country: The seat, government and presidency.

According to him, Prime Minister Kurti has insisted that the president's position remains his party.

Kurti, on the other hand, insisted that he does not want his party to lead the country's three main institutions.

Meanwhile, asked whether there is an approach between the LDK and former President Vjosa Osmani, who expired with the mandate on April 4th, Abdixhiku has declared that something like that would be good news for Kosovo as well as the LDK.

It is my goal and I will work on this goal until the last day”

The Kurti-Abdijku meeting comes as the constitutional deadline for election of the president expires on 28 April, and if it is not met, then the country will go to new elections.

Possible Kurti-Hamza meeting

Meanwhile, Kurti said he wrote to the PDK chairman for a possible meeting.

“I sent a message to PDK chairman Bedri Hamza, and see how it is possible to move forward”, Kurti said.

The PDK did not respond to Radio Europe Free for Comment.

Asked if he would make any similar offer to the PDK, Kurti declined to show, but added that the “oferate for co-governance that was offered for the LDK has been exclusive to LDK”.

PDK officials have recently said they are awaiting official letter from the prime minister for the meeting.

Kurt criticized him The PDK has demanded that someone from the opposition party be elected president in previous talks without pointing to the name of the potential candidate.

He repeated this on Monday, saying: “The PDK has asked me to make political agreement blanko, where they propose to two candidates and we vote to them”.

Kosovo's president is elected by two-thirds of the vote in the first two round or 61 votes in the third round, but 80 deputies in the hall are needed for the hearing to be held.

Therefore, an agreement is needed between parliamentary parties on the issue, since neither party nor even Kurti's ruling Movement Vetevendosje with 57 deputies has such a large number of MPs in the 120-seat Assembly.

After Vjosa Osmani's mandate ended at the beginning of the month, and the country failed to appoint its replacement, Parliament Speaker Albulen Haxhiu, was appointed the incumbent on April 4th.

Haxhiu himself called on the parties Sunday for reaching a consensus on electing the president, stressing that the country should not go to extraordinary elections. /rel