Spahiu: It would mean a lot to Kurti for the elections to be held during the summer

University professor Nexhmedin Spahiu says that in the Assembly of Kosovo, a majority can be formed that would vote to dissolve the parliament, thereby paving the way for early elections in the summer, which suits Prime Minister Albin Kurti who hopes for votes from the diaspora.

During the summer, as he adds, the diaspora is in Kosovo, and Kurti hopes to have its support, meaning he could gain about 200,000 to 300,000 more votes than he would in another period.

Part of the opposition, he says, is not ready for this, precisely because they know that the diaspora will vote for Kurti.

"The Democratic Party of Kosovo has an internal need for the elections to be as soon as possible, and if they gather a certain number of signatures to dissolve the Assembly, I believe that Self-Determination will add their votes, and there will be elections. Kurti has promised this and there is no reason to doubt that he will go for it, considering that it suits him to have elections during the summer," Spahiu told Kosovo Online.

When asked whether it would be feasible and beneficial for the stabilization of the situation in the north to hold local elections in the north of Kosovo along with the parliamentary ones, in order to elect new mayors in the four predominantly Serbian municipalities, Spahiu says that there is no legal basis for this.

"Early local elections can only be called in the case of the death of a mayor, if he resigns, or commits a criminal offense. The mechanism for removing a mayor is that more than half of the registered voters must vote for it in a referendum. Why would people who had a job before this position and were earning salaries of 170 euros or 200 euros per month, and now receive a salary of 1,500 euros, resign? It wouldn't make sense. Who could force them to do that? In Kosovo, torture is forbidden, it's illegal to coerce a mayor into resigning by taking him by the ears. If he doesn't want to, nobody can make him," says Spahiu.