Haradinaj could become Kosovo's next PM - report

Haradinaj could become Kosovo's next PM - report

The Russian agency is reporting on Thursday that a number of issues that needed to be addressed will now stay on the sidelines - and these include Pristina's obligations regarding "demarcation of border with Montenegro, the Brussels negotiations, establishing the (Community of Serb Municipalities) ZSO, and the launch of the special (specialist) court for KLA crimes."

Pristina will now organize early elections that should produce a new majority and a new government. Given his current ratings, "it can be expected" that Haradinaj will become the prime minister - but, according to Sputnik, "speculation about Behgjet Pacolli as the future prime minister because, supposedly, of his contacts with Russia, is also not far from the truth."

The Kosovo government collapsed on Wednesday thanks to the votes of the opposition and of PM Isa Mustafa's coalition partners, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) of Hashim Thaci, and the members of the Serb (Srpska) List.

The session of the Kosovo Assembly was marked by a heated debate that on several occasions nearly turned to incidents between former coalition partners PDK and Mustafa's LDK, who heaped blame on each other for the government's failures.

The downfall of the government in Pristina started precisely with "the demarcation problem" which has been ongoing since 2015, when the opposition led by the Self-Determination Movement created chaos claiming that Montenegro was being given eight hectares of "Kosovo's land." The opposition has since virtually held the Assembly under a siege using tear gas and boycotting its work.

Isa Mustafa and PDK leader Kadri Veseli, as well as some MPs from the former ruling coalition LDK-PDK, held separate meetings in the building of the Kosovo Assembly yesterday with the US ambassador and the of the EU Office in Pristina.

According to the report, for the first time in a long time a clear distinction is being made in Pristina between the civil option led by Mustafa, and that which includes "former members of the KLA."

However, the main clash is expected between the parties led by Hashim Thaci and Ramush Haradinaj, which are the strongest in Kosovo. Currently, Haradinaj has slight advantage after being in the spotlight for months due to his arrest in France on a Serbian war crimes warrant.

After a French court ruled against extraditing him to Serbia, Haradinaj was welcomed as "a national hero and martyr," said Sputnik.

It remains unclear how all this will affect the launch of the Specialist Court, that will deal with war crimes committed by the KLA ("Kosovo Liberation Army"). The court was established under the auspices of the European Union, while investigations are carried out on the basis of a report submitted by former Special Rapporteur of the Council of Europe Dick Marty.

The court was to start functioning in the period when early elections are now expected to take place in Kosovo.