The chairwoman of the Alternativa party and MP from Vetëvendosje (VV), Mimoza Kusari-Lila, says that the Constitutional Court cannot take away VV’s right to propose the candidate for the Speaker of the Assembly. According to her, after President Vjosa Osmani addressed the Constitutional Court, this institution should clarify the legal consequences in case the Assembly is not constituted by July 26. However, the right of VV, as the winning party in the February 9 elections, to propose the Speaker is guaranteed by a 2014 ruling of the same court.

She believes that the most realistic outcome, if there is no political agreement to elect the legislative bodies by the deadline set by the Court, would be decertification—resulting in the loss of mandate for the current MPs.

Opposition parties have recently increased their calls for the Constitutional Court to strip VV of the right to propose a candidate for Speaker of the Assembly, arguing that it has been four months since the certification of the election results and still no Speaker has been elected to pave the way for the formation of a new government.

However, in a 2014 ruling, the Constitutional Court established that the party which wins the parliamentary elections holds the right to propose the candidate for Speaker.

In an interview for KosovaPress, Kusari-Lila emphasizes that the delay in the Assembly's constitution is not due to a lack of a proposed name from VV, but due to the lack of quorum or participation in the vote for the secret ballot committee for the Speaker election.

With only two days left until the Constitutional Court’s deadline for the Assembly’s constitution, Kusari-Lila says it remains unclear what the legal consequences will be if legislative bodies are not elected by July 26.

Nevertheless, she says that one realistic possibility—if there is no political agreement for the Assembly’s constitution—is decertification or the loss of mandate of the current MPs.

The MP, whose party is in a governing coalition with VV, also spoke to KosovaPress about national security and the aggressive rhetoric of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic toward Kosovo.

According to her, Vucic’s goal is to make Serbs feel insecure in Kosovo and to incite mistrust toward Kosovo’s institutions.

She says this became evident in the case of Serbian official Igor Popovic’s visit to the Municipality of Rahovec, during which he was arrested for using inflammatory language against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

In this regard, Kusari-Lila calls for greater unity within the political spectrum in Kosovo when it comes to threats from Serbia, and not, according to her, the use of “cynicism and irony.”

Kosovo has yet to establish new institutions, despite holding parliamentary elections on February 9.

On Friday, July 25, the elected MPs will attempt for the 52nd time to constitute the Kosovo Assembly. The Constitutional Court, on June 26, obligated the MPs to constitute the ninth legislature by July 26, but did not specify what legal consequences would follow if they fail to do so. /E. Zeqiri