Unfreezing Kosovo's politics

Oct 16th 2010, 14:57 by T.J.

KOSOVO'S government has collapsed. If a caretaker administration cannot be formed within eight days then new elections will have to be held within 45 days. The news comes three days after Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, visited the country and urged Kosovo and Serbia to begin talks on practical issues.
The collapse was precipitated by an announcement this morning from Fatmir Sejdiu, leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), that his party would withdraw from the governing coalition on Monday. Mr Sejdiu was president of Kosovo until his resignation on September 27th, following a ruling by the constitutional court that he could not occupy the posts of party leader and president simultaneously.
Yesterday Jakup Krasniqi, the acting president, announced that elections would be held on February 13th. However it seems that the LDK had not agreed to this. Moreover, I have heard that the announcement also surprised Hashim Thaci, the prime minister, and other senior figures in the rival Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK).
Enver Hoxhaj, the minister of education and a member of the PDK, says the party is in favour of early elections. This is unsurprising. The LDK is in the midst of a leadership battle and thus in disarray (which makes the reason for Mr Sejdiu's move this morning unclear). Ramush Haradinaj, the leader of the main opposition party, is in detention at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, and the new party of Albin Kurti, the most popular politician in the country, has not yet taken proper shape. Mr Thaci recently described the political situation as “frozen”.
“In short,” says one source, “there is really no coherent opposition and no charismatic opposition politician who could lead a movement against Thaci and the PDK.” Polls—which may be unreliable—suggest the PDK would emerge from elections as the strongest party.
“The unknown factor,” says the source, is “what course of action the US embassy will push.” Ambassadors from friendly countries play an important role in shaping Kosovo’s politics, and none more so than Chris Dell, the American ambassador, who met Mr Thaci this afternoon.
It is too early to say how the collapse of the government will affect any talks with Serbia, but if elections are held in December then talks could begin early next year. There is little prospect of anything moving before then: in the run-up to elections no Kosovo Albanian leader will talk to Serbia for risk of being labelled a traitor.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. In July the International Court of Justice, in an advisory opinion, said that the declaration had not been contrary to international law. Kosovo has been recognised by 70 countries, including 22 of the 27 EU member states. Its independence is opposed by Serbia, Russia, China and others.

the economist

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