Surlic: After the elections, a possible anti-Kurti bloc or Self-Determination giving up the prime minister position to another party

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Stefan Surlic, told Kosovo Online that the scenario everyone fears in Kosovo is that new elections will solve nothing, that the post-election division will remain the same, and that there will be no qualified majority to support a government. As a solution, he sees two options: an agreement between Self-Determination and another political option, or a broad coalition of opposition parties.

An agreement between Self-Determination and another party would, he says, possibly involve a major concession in the form of the prime minister not being from Self-Determination.

“That is one possibility, which would weaken the somewhat fragile unity of the opposition. The other option is a broad coalition of opposition parties, which would put all divisions aside and form an anti-Kurti bloc. But in that case, it is very likely that the situation would resemble the previous elections, where the Serb List would be the swing factor and would have to be included, which is actually the biggest problem for the parties, because Kurti has succeeded in presenting in the past period that anyone forming a coalition with the Serb List is effectively aligned with Serbia and against Kosovo,” Surlic explained.

Whether opposition parties will keep their distance from the Serb List, in his view, will also depend on international pressure.

“It will depend on whether the role of the Serb List is rebranded and whether this is presented as a painful but necessary step to establish some form of social unity, so that Serbs and Albanians can form a government. That would certainly be good for Serbian representatives because they would again be part of the institutions and the system, and it would somehow reset everything that has been dismantled by Kurti’s government in the past period. But Kurti still has more maneuvering room. I am sure that if he offers key ministries, including the role of the president, he can very well appease at least one of the political opposition options to support his government after the elections,” our interlocutor noted.

He adds that, so far, surveys show, especially after the local elections, that Self-Determination is stable, and if it is not in power, it would be a very strong opposition.

Surlic points out that in the previous period there was clearly organized obstruction aimed at delaying the new elections as much as possible. Albin Kurti, he says, was aware that he would not have a secure government and bought time so that the elections would be held no earlier than the end of the year.

“Vjosa Osmani is helping him in this. When we look at all these procedures regarding the constitution of the Assembly and the quorum, it is clear that both legal and constitutional frameworks in Kosovo are being flagrantly violated. Then we come to a paradox where Kurti’s government insisted that only Serbs follow the laws and norms in Kosovo, while Albanians and their leaders were allowed to violate the very norms they claim to uphold. Vjosa Osmani gave Kurti a boost by creating a political game around Konjufca, even though it was evident that he had no support and that there was no political agreement,” Surlic emphasized.

As he concludes, it is now the final moment to hold elections by the end of the year or perhaps early next year to reach some form of resolution to the political crisis.