More than four months have passed since Vjosa Osmani’s mandate as president of Kosovo ended, but political parties have still not managed to find a name or an agreement for her successor.
Instead of a political compromise, the presidential issue has become one of the main nodes of the institutional crisis that is holding the country in a stalemate.
Albulena Haxhiu took over as acting president after Osmani’s term ended, while efforts to elect a new president failed to produce an agreement.
The deadline for electing a president expired on April 28, and the Assembly’s failure to elect a head of state led to its dissolution and then to extraordinary elections on June 7.
But even new elections did not resolve the impasse.
After June 7, political parties returned to the same point where they had left off: the post of president.
The Vetëvendosje Movement, as the winning party in the elections, has not managed to secure the necessary numbers on its own to elect the head of state, while negotiations with opposition parties have not produced an agreement.
In the talks between LVV and LDK, the issue of the president was one of the main points of discussion. LDK has demanded that this position go to it as part of a political agreement, while LVV has insisted on a consensual and non-partisan president.
In this clash, the position of president has become a kind of “currency” of political negotiations.
Kurti has offered other institutional positions, including the presidency of the Assembly, but the offer has not produced an agreement with other parties. Discussions have also been held with the PDK about the possibility of an agreement, but without a final result.
Kurti has publicly stated that he seeks a consensual president, arguing that the head of state should be a figure who unites parties and not a representative of a political entity.
On the other hand, the LDK has insisted that a political agreement must also include the issue of the president.
This is where the political impasse becomes even more complicated: LVV has the largest number of MPs, but not enough to elect the president on its own. In the last elections, LVV and its partners secured 57 seats, while the election of the president requires presence and votes according to the constitutional procedure.
An agreement between the LVV and LDK would significantly change the parliamentary math. With 18 LDK MPs, the LVV-led majority would secure 81 votes, potentially creating the numbers needed to elect the president, provided that at least 80 MPs are present in the chamber.
But LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku said on Friday that the parties are far from an agreement, while LVV leader Albin Kurti stated that there is a drastic difference between the election results and LDK’s demands.
On the other hand, if the country’s new president is not elected by October, Kosovo will go to new elections again.