Kurti, Hamza Talks End Without Deal on Kosovo President
A two-hour meeting between the Kosovo prime minister and the Democratic Party of Kosovo leader produced no agreement, and the deadline to elect a president expires Tuesday, October 6.
Kosovo Prime Minister and Self-Determination leader Aljbin Kurti and Democratic Party of Kosovo leader Bedri Hamza met on Friday, October 2, 2026, at the government building in Pristina and parted without an agreement. The talks lasted two hours and covered the election of Kosovo’s president and amendments to the law on the Specialist Chambers in The Hague. The Assembly has until October 6 to choose a head of state, or new elections are called, as we reported earlier.
Where do the two sides differ?
The dispute is about sequence. The Democratic Party of Kosovo wants amendments to the Specialist Chambers law adopted before a president is elected, while Self-Determination puts the presidential vote first. Hamza said earlier that if parliament passes the amendments, his party would back a presidential candidate on whom an agreement is reached.
Sources differ on how the meeting ended. N1 reports that Hamza told people at party headquarters there was no deal but did not rule out further talks, and that Kurti had not left his government office by then. The daily Danas notes that Hamza made no statement on leaving the government building, although he had always spoken after earlier meetings.
What did the government send to the Assembly?
The same evening, at an electronic session, the Pristina government decided to send the Assembly its assessment that the Democratic Party of Kosovo’s initiative breaks no law. The Assembly requested that assessment on September 23. According to a government statement carried by Radio KIM, the assessment includes a legal opinion on compliance with the EU acquis, a budget impact estimate and a legal opinion on the content of the draft, and it concludes that there are no legal obstacles to amending the law.
The party’s initiative provides for:
- narrowing the jurisdiction of the Specialist Chambers
- shortening the time frame of their mandate
- new rules on handing down and serving prison sentences
The proposal followed the first-instance verdict of September 16, in which former KLA leaders Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veselji, Jakup Krasnici and Redzep Selimi were sentenced to a combined 81 years in prison for war crimes.
What does the party want from the Assembly?
On Saturday, October 3, the party asked that proceedings in the Assembly begin immediately. Lawmaker Arijana Musliju-Sosi wrote on Facebook, as carried by Koha, that forwarding the amendments from the government is an important step. In her words, the law must be debated and voted in two readings, so proceedings should start today, given the 72-hour gap between the two readings.
Musliju-Sosi added that Kosovo also needs a coordinated legal and diplomatic strategy to appeal the September 16 verdict, and then warned about holding elections before that process ends:
“If the country goes to elections without this process being completed, we risk making it impossible to provide the institutional support we owe to the liberators, to the blood that was spilled and to our dream of freedom. This issue is above parties and political calculations. There is no government or opposition here. There is a state interest.”
Self-Determination, whose priority is the presidential vote, has not responded to this request so far in the sources we reviewed. One date is firm: on Tuesday, October 6, the deadline expires for the Assembly to elect Kosovo’s president.
