Thaci Push for Unity Government in Kosovo Deemed Futile

As the President Hashim Thaci on Kosovo launched talks on Monday with party leaders on the formation of a government of national unity - "to avoid an institutional vacuum", as he said - legal experts told BIRN that his hands in the formation of a new cabinet are largely tied, and success in this venture looked unlikely.

A legal expert in Pristina, Arber Ahmeti, told BIRN that the constitution neither envisaged nor "explicitly excluded" a national unity government, as suggested by Thaci.

But while the plan "has a constitutional basis", Ahmeti said, "the President does not have any competences regarding the composition of the [new] government".

Thaci "cannot ignore the party or coalition that has won the majority of votes, but it is in his discretion to appoint a new candidate [for PM] after consultation with political parties.

"However, the President takes such steps only after the proposal by the political party and it is not in his … power to choose a name or influence the composition of the government", Ahmeti explained.

The biggest party in parliament, however, Albin Kurti's Vetevendosje, so far seems uninterested in nominating another Prime Minister-designate and is opting for early elections instead.

On Sunday, Kurti, who remains technical Prime Minister, wrote on Facebook that Thaci was going against the constitution in calling for talks on a new unity government. He insisted that this can happen only if the Prime Minister resigns, and not if he is voted out in a no-confidence motion in parliament.

Kurti insisted that Thaci ought to dissolve parliament and call early elections "as soon as the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic ends".

Lulzim Peci, director of the Kosovar Institute for Policy Research and...