Haradinaj Eyes Succeeding Thaci as Kosovo President

Former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj is being promoted as Kosovo's possible next president after his party authorised him on Wednesday to represent it in discussions with its coalition partners on a potential reshuffle - and on who the next president should be.

In a press release, the steering council of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, said it had "authorized party leader Haradinaj to hold any talks on behalf of the Alliance on the eventual reconfiguration of the government, including the issue of the president if this is on the agenda.

"The Steering Council has also requested… that in these talks, the candidate for president should be Haradinaj," it added.

On Facebook, Haradinaj said he felt honoured by the party's decision to entrust him with this goal. "I consider the trust that I will be the candidate for president, if this is discussed … a high responsibility and special honour," he wrote.

Ardian Gjini, a deputy leader of AAK, said the indictment filed by the Specialist Prosecutor's Office in The Hague against current President Hashim Thaci for war crimes allegedly committed during the independence war of the 1990s was one reason for the need to discuss a new president.

Thaci has already said he will resign if the indictment is confirmed. His current mandate ends in April 2021 in any case.

But Gjini added that the issue of the presidency needed to be discussed soon whether the indictment against Thaci is confirmed or not.

"Even if no indictment is confirmed against President Thaci, after four or five months we will need to start the process of electing a president," Gjini said on Wednesday.

He added that the AAK was keen to avoid the early elections that would be triggered automatically if...