"Thaci, Pacolli reach coalition agreement" |
| 9 February 2011 | 10:26
| Source:
B92, Tanjug |
PRIŠTINA --
Hashim Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Beghjet Pacolli’s New Kosovo Alliance (AKR) have reached a coalition agreement, Priština media reported.
According to Priština-based Albanian language daily Koha Ditore, Thaci and Pacolli met last night and agreed to run Kosovo in the next four years.
The two parties’ representatives are expected to determine which ministries they will be in charge of next week.
The daily’s sources could not confirm whether Thaci agreed to leave the presidential role to the AKR.
“I know nothing about the agreement,” said a PDK deputy leader.
“Everybody will get their duty based on political power,” he told Koha Ditore.
The AKR, however, sees things differently.
“A condition to enter coalition with the PDK has been met. President Pacolli will run the country until conditions have been met for the people to choose the president,” said one of the AKR deputy leaders.
PDK Spokesman Blerand Stavileci said earlier that the PDK had called the AKR to form the ruling coalition together.
“Positions are issues that need to be talked about. The prime minister’s position belongs to Thaci, other positions are open,” he stressed.
Thaci and Pacolli’s meeting happened only two hours after the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) had decided not to join PDK’s coalition.
“AAK Board of Directors is convinced that the best solution for Kosovo is forming of a broader coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Democratic League of Kosovo and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo. That’s a unique opportunity to overcome this difficult situation that Kosovo is in,” AAK leader Besnik Tahiri stressed.
The largest opposition party, the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) led by Priština Mayor Isa Mustafa, will not join Thaci’s coalition.
The LDK stated immediately that the elections had not been fair and democratic and that there had been a “mass theft of citizens’ votes”.
Serbian parties in Kosovo are also divided regarding participation in Thaci’s new government. The Independent Liberal Party, which won eight seats in the parliament, will join the new coalition while United Serb List (JSL) leader Rada Trajković refuses to join Thaci’s government.
“That would be a waste of time, I don’t need to tell him that I won’t join the government, he knows it very well, on the other hand I don’t want to respect the formality and the procedure just for the sake of formality, considering that we basically have nothing to talk about,” she explained.
If the PDK decides to form the government only with the AKR and minorities' parties, difference in the number of seats between them and the opposition in the assembly will be very small.
The PDK, AKR and ethnic minorities' parties will together have between 61 and 64 seats since it is expected that three to six minority communities' MPs will not support Thaci's government.
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