Maliqi: Constitutional Court’s decision expected, there's been enough of ruling party’s games

Political analyst Shkelzen Maliqi emphasized that the Constitutional Court’s decision on the constitution of the Kosovo Assembly was expected and is in line with the Assembly’s Rules of Procedure, which were proposed and adopted by the Self-Determination Movement.

Maliqi pointed out that the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly were the main argument the Constitutional Court relied on in making its latest ruling.

“The Constitutional Court’s decision was expected because the Rules of Procedure of the Kosovo Assembly are clear. The ruling party, Self-Determination, adopted that rulebook two or three years ago, and it clearly states that the majority of MPs from the Serbian minority propose a candidate for deputy speaker, and that candidate is elected by a majority vote. There was nothing controversial there. They themselves passed that new rulebook, and the Constitutional Court merely referred to it as the main argument. The Court also gave a 12-day deadline for the Assembly to be constituted, which coincides with the local elections,” Maliqi told Kosovo Online.

Commenting on claims that the Court’s ruling effectively granted the Serb List a kind of veto, Maliqi said that is not the case, stressing that there had been plenty of games by the ruling party to delay the constitution of the Assembly and the return of Serbs in the north to Kosovo’s institutions.

“This is not a veto, it is the procedure that Self-Determination itself adopted. A veto would mean, for example, that the Serb List or Serbian MPs refused to vote, and then the Assembly could not be constituted. But that’s not the case. The procedure is clear: if one candidate does not get the votes, another must be proposed. I think there have been enough of these games, it is all very transparent. The goal was to buy time to prevent what will now happen: the constitution of municipal assemblies in northern Kosovo, which have long been blocked. That was Belgrade’s mistake when it ordered the withdrawal from institutions,” Maliqi added.

He stressed that Kosovo’s caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti has a plan to obstruct the Ahtisaari Plan and all obligations stemming from it, but that he will not succeed.

“Now the constitutional order must be restored. I believe Kurti himself is obstructing all this, perhaps because he has other plans to undermine the constitutional order and the Ahtisaari Plan and everything that follows from it. I don’t think this will succeed, nor should it. The local elections will also show the public mood, that the constitutional order must be respected and strengthened,” Maliqi concluded.