PRISTINA (Kosovo), February 4 (SeeNews) – The leader of Kosovo’s left-wing Self-Determination Movement (VV), Albin Kurti, took office as prime minister late on Monday after securing the support of 66 of the 120 members of parliament, parliament said.
The vote took place after on Sunday VV, the winner of Kosovo’s October 6 snap election, agreed to form a coalition government with the second-ranked centre-right Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). VV controls 29 seats in parliament and LDK has 28 MPs.
The new cabinet was also backed by MPs representing the ethnic minorities in Kosovo, parliament said in a statement.
The new government will fight corruption and nepotism, aiming to improve business climate, Kurti said, as quoted in the statement. It will strive to boost economic development and employment, with a focus on support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“I am ready to hold a dialogue with Serbia with a professional team," he noted.
Serbia withdrew from talks on the normalisation with Kosovo in November 2018, when Pristina decided to impose a tax on imports of all goods produced in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kosovo's government increased the import tax on all goods produced in Serbia and Bosnia to 100%.
Kurti's government has 15 ministers. Besnik Bislimi will be at the helm of the finance ministry while Rozeta Hajdari will be the new economy minister.
The former governing party, the centre-right Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), is the main opposition party in parliament with 24 MPs.
The October 6 election was called after former prime minister Ramush Haradinaj stepped down in July to appear for questioning as suspect before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague. The institution is investigating crimes committed during the 1990s guerrilla war waged by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians against Serbia's government forces.
Kosovo, considered to be a potential candidate for EU membership by the European Commission, unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has so far has been recognised by more than half of the 193 UN member states. Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo's independence.