Maliqi: Kurti created the crisis himself, opposition showed there is no majority even for mandate verification

Political analyst Shkelzen Maliqi stated that the constitutive session of the parliament revealed how divided Kosovo is after the February elections, and that the current caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti is personally to blame for the institutional crisis that followed.

"After these elections, Kosovo is a divided society. Voters distributed party strength in such a way that, without minorities, especially without the Serbian minority, the Serb List, it is very difficult to form a new government. No one has a majority, even though Self-Determination won a convincing victory," Maliqi told Kosovo Online.

Commenting on the failure of the constitutive session of the Kosovo parliament, the analyst said the situation would be resolved within 48 hours, but that the opposition demonstrated to the ruling party that it does not have enough votes, not even for the verification of mandates.

He explained that during this procedural session, the opposition used a legal provision that the ruling party itself had previously voted into law.

"Kurti himself passed the law stating that a prime minister must either resign or remain in office while giving up his MP mandate to someone else. One or the other. He chose to stay in office and wanted to vote together with his ministers. The opposition used this to show that he actually doesn't have the votes even to form a government," Maliqi said.

He believes the failure to constitute the parliament also exposed a new conflict between President Vjosa Osmani and Albin Kurti.

"That wasn’t the case in 2021, when he won a convincing majority largely thanks to her voters," Maliqi noted.

Commenting on Kurti's claims that opposition parties and the Serb List were to blame for the parliament's failure to convene, and that this constituted an "internal institutional attack on Kosovo and its democratic elections", Maliqi said Kurti has always blamed others, as he considers himself "above all."

"Kurti blames everyone, the Constitutional Court, the prosecution, all institutions. For him, nothing matters because he considers himself above everything, he thinks he is God," Maliqi said.

He explained that the crisis could be resolved if Kurti and other ministers elected as MPs submitted written resignations or gave up their seats to other MPs.

"But we see that he is still sitting in his prime minister’s office. He hasn’t left that office," Maliqi noted.

He added that Kurti also used the institutional crisis as a way to blame the opposition for everything.

"He claims they are to blame because this was supposed to be a procedural issue, something unimportant. But if he himself passed that law, and it was adopted without opposition votes, then he should respect basic rules," Maliqi concluded.