(8 Oct 2019) After winning a snap poll, Kosovo's nominee for prime minister said he wouldn't be rushing into a European Union-facilitated dialogue with Serbia because it wasn't one of his top priorities.
Albin Kurti's left-wing Movement for Self-Determination, or Vetevendosje, won Sunday's election, overcoming the former independence fighters who governed post-war Kosovo.
But Kurti's party did not garner enough votes to rule on its own and has asked the ex-opposition Democratic League of Kosovo to form a coalition.
EU observers said Kosovo's general election was "well-administered and transparent," although they criticised intimidation of ethnic Serbs by the main party representing the country's Serb minority.
"It cannot be top priority on day one of me as a new prime minister," he said in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday.
He said he would lift his predecessor's 100% tariff on Serb goods, which stalled the EU-facilitated talks.
Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia is not recognised by Belgrade, leading to continuing friction between the two countries.
Kurti said he was hoping to meet on Wednesday with US President Donald Trump's envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Ambassador Richard Grenell, who is to visit the country.
"The new government is going to have more space, more possibilities to deepen the relations ... (with) the United States, which proved to be an ally and a partner both in war and in peace," he said.
The Belgrade-backed Serb List party won the 10 seats guaranteed to Serbs in the 120-seat Parliament. Ten others are reserved for other minorities.
On including a representative from the ethnic Serb minority, he preferred a "Serb minister who comes from those Serbs who recognise the independence of Kosovo."
Serbian Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin called him "scum" and the Serbian official dealing with Kosovo, Marko Djuric, said he was a liar and "extremist" who was "stamping" on the "democratic rights" of Kosovo Serbs.
Kurti served more than two-and a-half years of jail in Serbia for his pro-independence activities and was released in 2001 following Western pressure on Belgrade.
"It's very sad to see how Belgrade is not facing its own past," said Kurti.

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