After a meeting between President Vjosa Osmani and political party leaders, no progress was made to resolve the ongoing political deadlock blocking the constitution of Kosovo’s Assembly. Attempts to form the Assembly have failed for the sixteenth consecutive time, one month after the initial efforts began.
Lumir Abdixhiku, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), stated that parties largely remain in their previous positions, emphasizing that “there is no potential solution to the political deadlock and no initiative to unblock it.” Meanwhile, Memli Krasniqi of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) expressed that “there is no breakthrough” and remains pessimistic about any changes from Vetëvendosje.
The winning party, Vetëvendosje, has yet to secure the necessary 61 votes to elect Albulena Haxhiu as Assembly Speaker, while PDK and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) view Haxhiu as a “divisive figure.” LDK has refused to support any Vetëvendosje candidate for the parliamentary chair.
Vetëvendosje insists on Haxhiu’s election and rules out proposing an alternative candidate, stressing that political agreement is necessary to form new institutions, as no party holds an outright majority.
President Osmani warned that the failure to constitute the Assembly threatens the constitutional functioning of Kosovo’s institutions, citing her duty under Article 84 of the Constitution to guarantee institutional functioning.
Bodo Weber, senior associate at the Council for Democratization Policies in Berlin, assessed this crisis as the deepest since Kosovo’s independence, due to the lack of strategic engagement from the West—especially the European Union—and escalating conflict among local parties.
According to Weber, the crisis stems from the unfinished nature of Kosovo’s political and institutional system, a shared responsibility of local elites and international actors involved since the 2007 constitutional process.
Ahead of the meeting, President Osmani met with Acting Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Prishtina, Anu Prattipati, discussing the urgency of constituting institutions and the consequences of continued delays.
