Thaci Pressures Kosovo MPs on Border Deal

With opposition to the deal still strong - and a possible lack of MPs' votes to ratify the agreement on demarcation with Montenegro - Kosovo President Hashim Thaci on Wednesday urged the country's parliament and government to pass the deal so that Kosovo can meet the criteria needed for visa liberalization with the EU.

"We cannot allow this shameful situation to go on eternally. On behalf of citizens I invite the institutions responsible to take the necessary action ... to fulfil the final remaining criterion for visa liberalization without delay," Thaçi wrote on Facebook.

The former leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PKD, which joined a coalition government under Isa Mustafa's Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, in December 2014, said local institutions were to blame for the delays in winning a new visa regime with the EU. 

"The responsibility for this bitter reality lies not only with EU institutions but on a considerable scale also in the institutions of Kosovo," President Thaci said.

Adem Grabovci, a PDK MP, told BIRN on Wednesday said the fate of the coalition government hung on the adoption of the agreement. "Its outcome will make the coalition sustainable or not," he told BIRN.

Grabovci said that if the coalition succeeded in taking big decisions such as this, it would likely continue.

"If the coalition is unable to take such decisions, it should offer another solution. And if the coalition decides snap elections are the solution, then we should go for elections," Grabovci added.

Vjosa Osmani, an MP from Mustafa's LDK party - who opposed her party entering a coalition with Thacis' PDK - said that it was up to MPs whether or not to break up the coalition.

"MPs should evaluate if they see this [demarcation...