Kosovo Parliament Elects Albin Kurti as Prime Minister

Six weeks after snap elections, parliament in Kosovo on Monday voted in Albin Kurti as Prime Minister for the second time within 13 months, after a long parliamentary debate.

Some 67 of the 120 MPs in the parliament supported Kurti's candidacy while 30 voted against. 

Kurti was mandated to form the government on Monday by his closest collaborator in his Vetevendosje party, Glauk Konjufca, hours after the latter was elected as the new speaker. 

According to the constitution, the prime minister should be mandated by the President, but when Konjufca was elected as speaker, he was automatically installed as Acting Presiden as well, replacing Vjosa Osmani in that post.

Former President Hashim Thaci was forced to resign in November 2020 when the Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers indicted him for war crimes and crimes against humanity during Kosovo's 1998-99 war.

Osmani was elected Speaker on February 3, 2020, when Kurti's first government, a coalition between Vetevendosje and Osmani's former party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, was voted in.

She was Kosovo's acting president for around five months after Thaci resigned in early November 2020 to face war-crime charges in the Hague.

"The challenges ahead for this government are new and old ones, but they are multiple. The pandemic remains the biggest challenge," Kurti said, presenting his cabinet and his governing program to parliament.

"As of today, we will start our journey to minimising inequalities and increasing the opportunities for all. It will be a long and arduous journey but together we will reach the desired aim," he added.

Speaking about the EU-facilitated dialogue with Serbia, Kurti played down new compromises as part of this process...

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