Kosovo Parliament Backs New Govt Under Kurti

The new government will have 15 ministries, instead of the 12 planned so far, with the Prime Minister, Kurti, coming from Vetevendosje, and the speaker from the LDK. The President of Kosovo's post - another thorny issue - is off the table for the moment.

The negotiating teams had already agreed on a governing platform, but the negotiations had stalled over the division of responsibilities. The LDK had sought both the post of parliament speaker and the President of Kosovo. In the end, the two parties settled on an agreement including proposals drawn from each side.

Kosovo's new PM Albin Kurti. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

Back to a cabinet of 15 ministers:

At the press conference on Sunday, Kurti, declared that the new government will have "15 ministries", as was originally proposed in the early stages of the negotiations.

From then until now, however, the two parties had agreed on 12 ministries, taking five each and allocating two to ethnic minority communities.

Political analyst Fitim Salihu told BIRN it was a shame so much time had been wasted for nothing.

"It is good that after four months a new government will be formed," Salihu said. "But it is unfortunate that the two parties have returned to their November positions … finally agreeing now what they could have agreed on back then."

Under the constitution, if a government has more than 12 ministries, minority communities must hold at least three.

So far, the Serbian community, as the largest minority, has always held two of these three ministries. However, it seems that in the new government, the Serbian community will hold only one ministry and non-Serbian communities will get the other two.

Kurti met with minority...