Hashim Thaçi

Earlier, Thaci questioned Lajcak's role, and after today's meeting with Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, he said that Lajcak would be welcome only if he accepted the reality in Kosovo.

After more than 20 years spent in Kosovo's political arena, President Hashim Thaci on Thursday announced that he will no longer be involved in politics once his mandate ends in April next year.

"I will not be a candidate for president in the next elections," Thaci told TV Siri.
In a few months, I don't think I will run for president again. I will lead entirely different life after two decades of political responsibility, the Kosovo President said.
"I am leaving in circumstances when the country will be heading in the right direction," Thaci said.

Movement driven by protests from the start:

Kosovo parliament speaker Vjosa Osmani has reacted with fury to claims that her family once worked for the Serbian police when the country was under Yugoslav rule, after President Hashim Thaci repeated the allegation on Tuesday.

"Tonight, the snake tried to bite the honour of my family," Osmani wrote on Facebook, referring to Thaci by his wartime nickname of "The Snake".

A French journalist and an American academic have told BIRN that they were lobbied to write positively about "border corrections" and a potential land swap between Kosovo and Serbia.

He added that he believes that an agreement could be reached this year, Kosovo online reports.
Thaci said that it would have to move quickly in that direction in order for Kosovo to join the EU and NATO. He stated that he is optimistic that an agreement with Serbia will be reached this year.

"We are open for talks. Thaci did all this with the help of the United States and will always ask to talk in their presence. Serbia will always talk, but all those measures that destroyed the possibility of free access to goods and capital must be removed. When that has been done, we will be ready to talk", Vucic pointed out.

A Kosovo activist, Veron Hasani, has pressed charges against the bodyguards of President Hashim Thaci, after being detained for calling the president a "thief" and, he said, violently attacked.

A group of over 40 civil society organisations in Kosovo said in a joint statement on Thursday that Shkelzen Gashi has been "threatened and insulted in the worst way by the general public, but also by many personalities and politicians including President Hashim Thaci".