Time Kadrijaj, MP from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), is accusing the newly elected Speaker of the Assembly, Dimal Basha, of acting in violation of the country’s Constitution, KosovaPress reports.

A day after Speaker Basha declared the constitutive session of the ninth legislature closed, despite the fact that no deputy speaker from the Serb community was elected, Kadrijaj said that the main goal of Vetëvendosje is to block the legal timeline for forming the government, since it lacks the numbers to secure a parliamentary majority.

Nearly seven months after the February 9 parliamentary elections, Kosovo has still not formed its new institutions.

Kadrijaj argues that Vetëvendosje, which won the elections, bears primary responsibility for this delay.

The AAK vice chairwoman told KosovaPress that the Assembly should have voted on the deputy speakers from non-majority communities as a package, instead of entering into what she called an unknown legal situation.

“According to the Constitutional Court’s ruling, just as the three deputy speakers from the Albanian side were elected as a package, the deputy speakers from the Serb community and the other communities should also have been voted on as a package. You saw that the voting was separated, without consultation, without agreement, without negotiation—something that at minimum should have been brought as a motion in the Kosovo Assembly. Nevertheless, they departed from the predetermined agenda. The second ruling made it clear that they must return to the agenda as agreed during the initial consultative meetings between political parties prior to the first session. The agenda was precise and clear… Vetëvendosje bears one hundred percent of the blame, because it is the party that took the speaker’s position, but also has the responsibility, since the Constitutional Court’s decision clarified: they have the right to propose, but not the right to block,” Kadrijaj said.

According to her, Vetëvendosje chairman and acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti does not have the numbers to form the next government, and therefore, as she put it, he is playing such “games” in the Assembly.

The constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly was closed on Saturday by Speaker Basha, although in six rounds of voting no Serb community representative was elected as deputy speaker.

Alongside the candidates from the Serbian List, another Serb community MP, Nenad Rashiq, also ran, but he failed to secure enough votes for the position.

Rashiq received votes only from Vetëvendosje MPs and those from non-Serb communities, while PDK abstained, LDK did not participate, and in the final session AAK and Nisma MPs were absent.

“Mr. Kurti will not risk confronting himself in a session where he does not have the absolute majority needed to be elected prime minister. All these maneuvers with Vetëvendosje figures—whether important or less important to them—are done so that the blockade remains at this level, at the level of constituting the Assembly, and does not in any form advance to government formation. Once this stage passes, the timeframes for government election come into play,” she said.

Although some AAK MPs voted for Vetëvendosje’s candidate for speaker, Kadrijaj said AAK will not vote for the formation of Kurt Government III.

On this issue, she also criticized the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), which, according to her, has been rigid in preventing the formation of a new government by the former opposition parties.

“The Alliance has been the clearest of all political parties. We have supported the formation of a government by the former opposition parties. Our stance has been clear in this regard and we will continue with this perspective. No, we will not in any way become part of Kurti’s government… If we oppose a government—meaning a package, a governance, or the continuation of Kurti’s government—then we must have alternatives and better cooperation among the former opposition parties in order to secure another government. And now, this rigid positioning makes it impossible to have a government formed by the former opposition,” she said.

Additionally, Kadrijaj called for the resignation of the newly elected Speaker, Dimal Basha, following reports that he co-authored a paper discussing the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

However, Basha denied ever writing against the KLA, insisting that his contribution was limited only to a chapter on radical Islam.

“We have seen it. It’s no surprise that this Dimal Basha was proposed by Vetëvendosje, but to present him as their best choice for this position is troubling. If he is the best, then what does that say about the other MPs of Vetëvendosje? This is shameful. With these ongoing attacks on the KLA, we’ve repeatedly heard this from Vetëvendosje’s opponents—and sometimes, as you know very well from TV debates, analysts have revealed who these Vetëvendosje MPs are: their history, their background, their level. This latest publication is the peak of it all. And this man does not deserve to hold such a high position. If the Assembly had been constituted, we would have had the votes. The very first law we would have insisted on passing would have been the law on the protection of war values and all national values of Kosovo. Anyone who insults or undermines these national values should be sanctioned under the law,” she concluded.

On Monday, Speaker Basha called a meeting of the Assembly Presidency, but PDK and LDK, represented by their deputy speakers, announced they will not participate.

It also remains unclear how President Vjosa Osmani will proceed with issuing the decree for the prime ministerial candidate, given that Basha closed the constitutive session. /E. Zeqiri/