Kurti: We’ll Stop Presidents Running Kosovo-Serbia Talks

The leader of Kosovo's Vetevendosje (Self-determination) Movement and likely next prime minister, Albin Kurti, has said that the Serbian and Kosovo presidents should no longer run the currently stalled EU-led dialogue between the two countries.

Kurti told the BIRN Kosovo TV show Jeta ne Kosove on Thursday that neither president should take part in negotiations concerning territory, for example.

During 2018, talk of an exchange of territories - swapping Albanian-majority areas in southern Serbia for Serb-majority ones in northern Kosovo - arose among some Serbian and Kosovo politicians, including Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci.

However, land swaps never became an official topic of discussion in the official EU-led dialogue in Brussels between Serbia and its former province, whose independence it does not recognize.

Kurti also denied claims made in the Serbian media earlier this month that he would refuse to meet the Serbian President, saying that "Vucic was supposed to be in the conference in Berlin, he was invited, but he didn't come because he went to Moscow".

Turning to the incomplete negotiations on forming a new government in Kosovo, Kurti said one problem was that the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, was demanding the post of prime minister - without saying who that new PM would be.

"I am being asked to give blank consent. They have requested the post but did not tell me who their candidate is," Kurti told the TV show.

In the October 6 snap elections, Vetevendosje won most votes, followed by the LDK. The two parties have been in prolonged talks since then in forming a coalition government, though no final agreement has been reached so far.