Milenkovic: It is unlikely that the Speaker of the Assembly will be elected on April 15, the caretaker government will last

Marko Milenkovic from the NGO "New Social Initiative" says that there is currently a political and legal vacuum in Kosovo because the government should submit its resignation to the parliament, but the new assembly that would verify such a resignation has not yet been constituted. Therefore, he believes that the caretaker government will likely continue for some time.

Although the constitutive session of the parliament is scheduled for April 15, Milenkovic points out that it is unlikely that a speaker will be elected, and greater uncertainty may follow.

"The speaker should be proposed by Self-Determination and elected by a majority of MPs, which at this moment I do not see as possible — although this might change over time. On the other hand, the opposition is not in a position to propose and elect a speaker either, so we are really in a strange situation. There is a legal vacuum, and the Law on the Government complicates the situation even further. We have contradictions here: on one hand, it says that resignations must be verified by the Assembly, but on the other hand, the law and the Constitution state that when government members become MPs, they lose the right to remain members of the government," Milenkovic explained.

According to him, there are two possible ways to resolve the situation: one would be for Self-Determination and some opposition parties to reach a political compromise, and the other would be for opposition parties or other political actors to address the Constitutional Court and request an opinion and guidance on how to overcome this situation.

He recalls that legal vacuums have existed before and that with each election, new legal issues and deficiencies come to light.

"The confirmation of election results took a long time, and the whole process is still ongoing, and we don't know when it will end, which leads us to reflect on how these laws were written — what is their essence? Clearly, there is a need to work on changing and harmonizing them," Milenkovic points out.

At the same time, he believes that the current situation somewhat suits both the government and the opposition, but primarily benefits Albin Kurti, since it gives him extra time to try to form a new government and improve his position in that regard.

"It seems that Albin Kurti is deliberately using these legal vacuums to extend his mandate. If he fails to form a new government, I think there is a possibility that elections could be combined with the local elections this fall, meaning both parliamentary and local elections could be held at the same time. In my opinion, this would help Self-Determination in its attempt to achieve a better result, given that local elections allow for more groundwork to be done to improve electoral performance," Milenkovic said.