Hashim Thaci

As the President Hashim Thaci on Kosovo launched talks on Monday with party leaders on the formation of a government of national unity - "to avoid an institutional vacuum", as he said - legal experts told BIRN that his hands in the formation of a new cabinet are largely tied, and success in this venture looked unlikely.

The US Special Envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Grenell, the US Ambassador to Kosovo, Philip Kosnett, and the US Special Representative for the Western Balkans, Matthew Palmer, have dismissed claims made by outgoing Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that the Presidents of Kosovo and Serbia had reached a secret agreement on a land swap with their knowledge as part of a final deal on

The latter option would mirror previous practice established after successful no-confidence votes in 2010, 2014 and 2017. However, one obstacle to this is the coronavirus pandemic.

The overthrow of the Kosovo government under Albin Kurti on Wednesday night has created a fluid political situation, similar to that after the last election, creating the need for the formation of a new government, without excluding the possibility of new elections.

President Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday morning that he has asked Kosovo's Constitutional Court to rule against new measures restricting people's freedom of movement as part of attempts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Isa Mustafa, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, at the Kosovo Assembly in May 2017. Photo: EPA-EFE/ Valdrin Xhemaj

The leader of the junior partner in Kosovo's coalition government, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, said on Wednesday evening that he will file a motion for a no-confidence vote after one of the party's ministers was sacked from the cabinet.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Wednesday dismissed Interior Minister Agim Veliu amid a dispute over whether to impose a state of emergency which has pitted the country's top political leaders against each other.

If Washington's threats of denying economic aid and withdrawing US troops from Kosovo and Metohija do not discipline the prime minister of interim Pristina institutions, Albin Kurti, and in case he does not suspend tariffs, it is not excluded that the United States will pull another trump card - a change of government in Pristina.

Donald Trump Jr wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he agrees with a suggestion by Republican senator David Perdue that the US should "reconsider its presence" in Kosovo if Pristina does not agree to fully revoke its 100 per cent tariffs on imports from Serbia.