March 25 – Kosovo’s government was voted down by the Parliament on Wednesday after only 51 days in power, following a non-confidence motion initiated by its coalition partner, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). The motion gained 82 votes, while 32 voted against and one abstained, out of a total of 120 parliamentary seats. Among those who voted against the motion was Vjosa Osmani, the deputy head of LDK as well as the Speaker of the Parliament.
Shortly after the voting took place, Prime Minister Albin Kurti dismissed his first deputy from the Democratic League of Kosovo, Avdullah Hoti.
The U.S. had been putting pressure on Kurti for weeks to unconditionally lift the tariff on Serbian goods, but the Prime Minister continued to follow through with his plan to gradually lift the tariff if Serbia ended the campaign against Kosovo’s independence. This was not received well by the U.S. or the LDK, which accused Kurti of putting Kosovo’s relationship with the US on the line.
Clashes between the coalition partners deteriorated whe Kurti dismissed the the Minister of Internal Affairs, Agim Veliu last week due to disagreements over whether or not to declare a state of emergency in Kosovo.
The vote of no-confidence was later intitated by LDK leader Isa Mustafa, who claimed that Kurti was taking one-sided decisions without considering the coalition agreement.
During the motion, Kurti announced that the reason behind the revolt against the current government, has not been to drop the tariffs, but not to impose reciprocity measures with Serbia. He further expressed that “there is already a deal. The president [Thaci] has actually confirmed this to me in his meeting with him. I met him for two hours, and he said to me: ‘Prime Minister, lift the tax, [let us] go to the White House and get rid of Serbia.” However, Kurti said that he would never be part of such a deal.
The fall of the government takes place at a time when Kosovo is facing the crisis of the coronavirus pandemic. So far, one victim and 71 coronavirus cases have been confirmed.
