PDK and LDK agree on province’s new government
Two top parties and long-time political foes in Kosovo finally agreed Wednesday to form a new coalition government, just weeks ahead of the announced “crucial” moves towards a “coordinated independence” designed between Western countries and Pristina outside of the UN framework.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, December 27, 2007
Former political leader of the Albanian separatist guerrilla movement during the 1998-99 conflict Hashim Thaci is set to become the province's fifth premier. His party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), will have seven and the new coalition partner Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) five ministries in new cabinet.
Thaci's DPK and the LDK won combined 62 seats in province's 120-seat parliament.
However, the coalition between two strongest parties which dominated Kosovo's political scene in past eight years was almost unimaginable until the death of LDK's founder and long time leader Ibrahim Rugova, who accused Thaci of "collaboration with Serbian secret services".
The rivalry was, essentially, triggered by the, at the time U.S. secretary of State Madeleine Albright who pushed the young rebel leader into headlines promoting him to head Kosovo's delegation in 1999 Rambouillet peace talks.
Thaci retaliated swiftly, preventing Rugova's return to Kosovo for several months following the deployment of NATO troops and United Nations mission in 1999, and a political battle, mixed with threats and at least two assassination attempts, continued until the LDK leader's death in early 2006.
