Radojkovic: Kurti is missing deadlines for constituting the Assembly to extend his caretaker mandate

Historian Stefan Radojkovic told Kosovo Online that everyone in Pristina is aware that the deadlines for constituting the Assembly have been missed, particularly Self-Determination.

As he pointed out, the attempt to reach an agreement with the LDK on the election of the president was carried out rather hastily, as if there had been no internal agreement within the LDK on the matter.

“It seems that the leaders of Self-Determination were in a hurry because of the first expected verdicts in the Thaci and others case before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. All these attempts, so to speak, seem rather theatrical, especially when we see opposition from within the LDK. There are six MPs without whom it will not be possible to elect a new president of the provisional institutions in Pristina. In that sense, it seems that Kurti has tried, in the best-case scenario, to resolve this institutional crisis in Pristina, and in the worst-case scenario, to miss the deadlines and extend his caretaker mandate as prime minister, in order to potentially postpone the next round, that is, a new round of parliamentary elections, which are now being held repeatedly, practically twice a year, so that they could be held again sometime in the autumn or, preferably, already in December. That would once again allow the Albanian diaspora to provide the decisive advantage that it could potentially give Self-Determination and give it the opportunity to constitute not only the Assembly on its own, but also elect the president of the provisional institutions in Pristina,” Radojkovic said.

Radojkovic recalled that there had previously been interventions from Brussels and Washington when political deadlock occurred in Kosovo.

“In other words, one of the first presidents of the provisional institutions in Pristina came to office because, in fact, the embassies brought an envelope and presented the bill, so to speak, or put on the table the name they wanted to see as president of the provisional institutions in Pristina. Now it seems that this caretaker government, and Self-Determination as the key actor in this regard, is more immune or more resistant to external intervention. In that sense, it has also been shown in many other cases that Kurti is prepared to resist the international community, primarily Brussels, and even the United States. It is therefore not surprising that the US suspended the launch of the strategic dialogue with the provisional institutions in Pristina. Europe, of course, regularly expresses concern, but the question is how much these external actors actually want to pressure, influence and make decisions. Because, in the current state of international politics, the issue of Kosovo and Metohija and the provisional institutions in Pristina is not high on the list of priorities,” he said.

Regarding the session scheduled for September 9 and the possibility of an incident occurring there, the Kosovo Online interviewee said that this would not be the first time.

“On the other hand, the international community would prefer new elections, but we can expect further delays and a continuation of a kind of vicious circle, meaning that Albin Kurti will probably try to call new elections during the winter,” Radojkovic concluded.