Kosovo prime ministerial candidate Ramush Haradinaj from the coalition between the Kosovo Democratic Party, PDK, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK and the Initiative for Kosovo, NISMA, planned to hold consultative meetings with political groups on Tuesday in a bid to create a new administration, but he could only meet the representatives of non-Serb ethnic minorities.
After the results of the June 1 elections were certified, Haradinaj sent an invitation to acting Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, whose coalition won 29 seats in parliament, and the leader of Vetevendosje, Visar Ymeri, who will have 32 MPs.
But Mustafa turned down the invitation.
“We do not need such meetings at all,” he told for Radio Free Europe on Monday.
“We have clearly stated as the LDK [Democratic League of Kosovo], and also as a coalition [with the AKR and Alternative] that we will not enter into any agreement with a coalition of the PDK [Kosovo Democratic Party],” he added.
Haradinaj has however started meetings with non-Serb minorities in the Kosovo Assembly.
An official from the AAK party, Avni Arifi, said that the Serb bloc Srpska Lista would also be invited to have talks, but “it is just a matter of the schedule” when this will happen.
Vetevendosje’s Ymeri said meanwhile that the purpose of the meeting requested by Haradinaj was not clear on his letter, but he once again made it clear that Vetevendosje is not interested in any talks with a coalition involving the PDK.
“If Haradinaj is inviting [us] to discuss the possibility of cooperation for governance, that meeting can only be accepted when the invitation is made by someone in the position of the leader of the AAK, and after he goes out of the [PDK-AAK-NISMA] coalition,” Ymeri wrote on Facebook.
Before Haradinaj started his meetings, AAK party official Avni Arifi told media that “we sent formal invitations, we are waiting for formal answers”.
Arifi also said that if Vetevendosje and the LDK-AKR-Alternative coalition refuse to join the PDK-AAK-NISMA coalition to establish a government, “we will have an appropriate response and reaction”.
Meetings with political parties are also being held by the US ambassador to Pristina, Greg Delawie.
Delawie met Haradinaj on Monday and on Tuesday he was seen going to the office of Behgjet Bacolli, the head of Alliance New Kosovo, AKR, who is part of acting PM Mustafa’s coalition.
Delawie did not want to comment on meeting, but he briefly told media: “We will meet all of them.”
The Central Election Commission certified the election results on July 8, which means that the Kosovo Assembly must convene in less than a month.
“The inaugural session of the Assembly shall be convened by the President of the Republic of Kosovo within thirty (30) days from the day of official announcement of election results,” the Kosovo Assembly’s rules of procedure say.
According the rules of procedure, not later than five days before holding the inaugural session of the new assembly, “the President and the Presidency of the previous term shall call a joint meeting with the leaders of political parties that have won the seats to prepare the draft agenda of the inaugural session of the Assembly, to decide on the seating order of Members of the Assembly, respectively political entities in the plenary hall, based on the number of Members of the Assembly of each political entity”.
Haradinaj told Klan Kosova TV on Monday evening that he expects all the necessary procedures to form a new administration to be complete within a week.
