Pavkovic: Kurti will push his own candidate for president at all costs

The Director of Strategy at the Center for European Policy in Belgrade, Milos Pavkovic, told Kosovo Online that after a convincing victory in the parliamentary elections, Albin Kurti is approaching the election of the president of Kosovo from a position of power, which is why he will not listen to opposition proposals for a presidential candidate but will push his own at all costs.

“He has no appetite whatsoever for any kind of compromise with the opposition. Whether Kurti’s candidate will be Vjosa Osmani or someone else from Self-Determination, we do not know at this moment. He will likely weigh the situation, and my expectation is that he will nevertheless go with Vjosa,” Pavkovic said.

According to his assessment, even if Kurti does not secure the two-thirds majority required in the first two rounds of voting for his candidate, he may be willing to risk snap parliamentary elections, but will try to secure 61 votes in the third round by obtaining individual support from some MPs from opposition parties.

In the calculations surrounding the presidential post, Pavkovic adds, the results of the parliamentary elections play a major role, since Kurti won more than 50 percent of the vote and, with a few minority MPs, can form a government on his own without any other Albanian party.

“Since he does not need any other party to form a government, why would he take other parties into account when electing the president? Of course, this carries the risk of potentially unsuccessful elections, but knowing Kurti and his history of ‘digging in his heels’ and refusing to cooperate with the opposition, I see no basis for expecting that he will seek cooperation with any opposition party. If some opposition party supports his candidate, he will accept it, but he will not openly enter negotiations with the opposition. Instead, he will simply impose his candidate, and for the opposition it will be: take it or leave it,” Pavkovic believes.