Political parties in Kosovo have “started the race” to find the culprit as to who is leading the country to new parliamentary elections, after the failure to resolve the issue of the president.
The Assembly has until April 28 to elect a new president or the country will automatically go to new elections. On Monday, the fifth meeting of the leaders of Vetëvendosje and the Democratic League also proved unsuccessful. And as it became known, there was an agreement not to meet again. The leader of the LDK, Lumir Abdixhiku, announced that he had rejected two offers from Albin Kurti, the first to be included in the Government as deputy prime minister and for the LDK to have 4 ministers, and the second, which came after the rejection of the first, that the post of speaker of the assembly go to Abdixhiku’s party, and for Vetëvendosje to take the deputy speaker position.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Kosovo, after the meeting of the Steering Council, has declared its contribution to this process closed. This party refused to meet with Kurti, who after the meeting with Abdixhiku announced that he had written to the chairman Bedri Hamza.
Opposition parties have blamed the government for the presidential issue. Abdixhiku, after the meeting with Kurti, said that he refused to talk about anything else without addressing the issue of the president. He said that Vetëvendosje insisted that this post belongs only to this party. “We were discussing the issue of the president. So I refused to talk about anything else without addressing the issue of the president, because the problem was the president, not the Government. Kosovo has a Government, it also has an Assembly, but it does not have a president. We cannot propose someone when he insists that the president remain from his party. It is not a matter of proposals or media news. With LDK, Vetëvendosje has not discussed any name except Glauk Konjufca,” Abixhiku declared after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Kurti said that Kosovo is heading towards elections after “it has been placed in a position where offers are rejected and the parties do not make proposals.”
“The Democratic League of Kosovo itself has never considered that it deserves the presidency. So you have to understand the difficult situation I am in, I cannot become more LDK than the LDK. So the Democratic League of Kosovo itself has not considered that it deserves the presidency and has not requested such a thing, I cannot request in negotiations what is not requested by the other side,” Kurti said. He also accused the PDK of “evading reality” after refusing to meet. “There is a certain boycott. You can research with the other side how it is possible to say that you want us to come to an agreement, but here I am not accepting to meet. You remember last year, what a blockade. But since December 28 is being denied, you say that nothing happened that day, and you say that we are still in 2025, I don’t know about the others, but I believe that the year is 2026,” he said.
Meanwhile, PDK, after the meeting of the Steering Council, has blamed the government for not resolving the impasse. “Regarding the issue of the President, the Steering Council assesses that PDK has demonstrated full willingness to contribute to the election of the new President and to unblocking the situation, by supporting the possibility of a consensual candidate, without any conditions or requests for inclusion in co-government. However, despite this constructive approach, the lack of political will and institutional seriousness on the part of the current government is once again making the election of the new President impossible. Consequently, PDK considers its contribution to this process concluded,” the statement said.
After the failure of the session to elect the president, on March 5, Vjosa Osmani, then president, dissolved the Assembly through a decree. This decision was welcomed by the opposition parties. However, this decree, with the ruling of March 25, was repealed by the Constitutional Court, stating that the deputies have until April 28 to elect the new president. The constitutional deadline for electing the president ends on April 28. The passing of this deadline, without a solution, means elections within 45 days. Under these circumstances, the elections can be held on June 7 at the latest. According to the Constitution, the president of Kosovo is elected with two-thirds of the votes in the first two rounds or with 61 votes in the third round, but 80 deputies are needed in the hall for the session to be held.
The Vetëvendosje Movement has proposed two names, Glauk Konjufca and Fatmire Mulhaxha, while no other names have been mentioned by the opposition parties. If Kosovo goes to elections, there will be a third parliamentary term in less than 15 months. The other two were held in February and December 2025.