Kurti's proposal to Mustafa: Leader of Self-Determination "gives" more ministries to LDK

This offer by Kurti arrived to the LDK late last night

The Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) led by Isa Mustafa confirmed today that they received a new offer from leader of the Self-Determination Movement, Albin Kurti - an offer which the Pristina media interpret as the last in a bid to reach a post-election coalition agreement and form a new government.

In that latest offer, according to the Insajderi portal, Self-Determination proposes that the future Pristina government should have 14 ministries instead of 12, as envisaged by the preliminary agreement. Kurti proposes that the LDK should receive six ministries, Self-Determination five, while three would go to minority communities.

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This offer by Kurti arrived to the LDK late last night, and party spokesman Besian Mustafa, without going into any details of the offer,said it would be the topic of one of the party meetings in the coming days. He said in a statement that the latest proposal coming from Self-Determination is very similar to the one presented at last week's meeting.

Under the latest proposal, Insajderi reports, the prime minister would come from the Self-Determination Movement, as well as the parliament speaker and five ministers, while the LDK is offered to have a deputy prime minister, the first deputy speaker of parliament, six ministers, and two deputy ministers more than Self-Determination.

According to the latest offer, Self-Determination finally accepted that the LDK would be the party to nominate the presidential candidate who would succeed Hashim Thaci after the end of his term - which reportedly should meet all conditions and all constitutional criteria.

"If, for any reason, the presidential candidate does not get the approval of Self-Determination, the LDK would then take over another ministry," the proposal states.

Kurti and Mustafa have met eight times so far to negotiate an agreement, but have had no success. The last meeting was on Thursday, after which the leaders did not address the media.

Following a meeting at the party he yesterday between the leadership of the LDK and US Ambassador Philip Kosnett - who called on leaders to form a government as soon as possible - Mustafa said that "the solution was in the hands of Self-Determination."

Self-Determination spokeswoman Albulen Haxhiu told Insajderi yesterday that there was no guarantee of a post-election coalition agreement with the LDK.

In the meantime, Thaci called on Kurti to submit the name of the candidate for prime minister as soon as possible, considering more than three months have passed since early parliamentary elections. He also announced that he would turn to the Constitutional Court for some interpretations, including the deadline for the party that won the most votes (Self-Determination) to submit the name of the candidate, and what would happen if the party gave up on the post of prime minister.

Political analyst Ramush Tahiri considers Kurti's behavior inappropriate, and says that the leader of Self-Determination should inform Thaci that he was giving up on becoming the prime minister.

Tahiri believes that the fact that Kurti, as the leader of the first-ranked in the past elections, is not fulfilling his constitutional duty and that he could have submitted the name of the candidate for PM within 15 days of the confirmation of the election results.

He points out that an institutional crisis taking place, and that Kurti is asking Thaci to wait even though neither the government nor the parliament are functioning, while the situation is getting worse for citizens.

The LDK as well should come out with a clear position, according to Tahiri.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)