In character and politics, Kosovo’s president and new prime minister are very different beasts, with two decades of disagreement behind them. Can they bury the hatchet, at least for the sake of Kosovo’s EU-mediated talks with Serbia?
Hashim Thaci and Albin Kurti diverged politically in 1999 over a peace deal proposed at a French chateau, the failure of which led to NATO air strikes to drive Serb forces from Kosovo, then a province of Serbia.
Now, three weeks after Kurti became prime minister of Kosovo, he and President Thaci have yet to hold an official meeting, and the mood music suggests no imminent end to their two decades of disagreement.
The political and personal divide between them promises a period of tense co-habitation for the last 14 months of Thaci’s term in office, with potential ramifications for stalled European Union-mediated talks with former master Serbia.
“I don’t expect them to cooperate,” said Kosovo analyst Nexhmedin Spahiu, “except in their protocol obligations.”