At last

Promises like “now we will find a solution to all the evils we have found” no longer hold water: they were found five years ago, and for five years they have not been solved. And now, do we have to listen to four more people about how the found mess will be solved, even though this mess was created by his previous government. If in the last mandate he could still say “we are trying to fix what they have destroyed for 20 years”, in this mandate he can only say “we are trying to fix what we did not know how to manage ourselves”

The votes were counted and certified. And then Osmani acted quickly and did the right thing – he called the deputies to a constitutive session the very next day.

The day before the session, the outgoing Speaker of the Assembly invited the chairmen or representatives of the political parties to agree on the agenda, at which meeting, after an extremely long time, the word "consensus" was found and implemented.

The most important decision was to vote on the vice-presidents in a package, so as to eliminate any possibility of unnecessary delay – because now the interest is not in delay, but in the urgency of passing several key decisions to make state institutions functional.

The session was called, the new speaker was elected. She came out and gave a speech where she wanted to show that she was ready for cooperation and to listen to what others had to say. “My task will be to ensure that the Assembly functions with dignity, transparency and mutual respect, in accordance with the Constitution, laws and parliamentary practices,” said Haxhiu. It sounds nice, but in the context of massive vote theft within parties, where not a single MP came out unscathed, this turns out to be very ironic. Of course.

After Haxhiu, the deputy chairmen were elected, and immediately after the session, VV took the proposal to Osmani, who invited Kurti to give him the mandate.

At around 20:20 PM, the invitation for the next session was sent, with an invitation that stipulated that the meeting would be held at 20:00 PM... but in the end it didn't matter, because in the last five years I don't remember any session starting on time. Which speaks volumes about the respect that the MPs have for the people who voted for them.

* * *

So, Kurti came out, gave a speech, as if it were a verbatim copy of the speech he had given on October 25, 2025, when he failed to pass his government with the aim of leading us to early elections.

It was almost like watching that movie again: praise for "what we have done" and promises of Hawaii for "what we will do" - still relying on the endless distribution of funds from the state budget for subsidies of all kinds.

It's not that I heard, or maybe it escaped me, that the new government, which has an overwhelming majority in the Assembly to support its plans, will establish and operationalize the pension and disability insurance fund, for example. As for health insurance, I don't believe anyone takes it seriously anymore, because it's been mentioned almost every year for over a decade.

The promises of "we will build roads here and there", meaning those launched four years ago, crippled by endless roundabouts on a 40-kilometer route, for example, or a deserted highway to Gjilan (imagine it's 1 kilometers long) that has been at 65% of completed work for years, is just one of the indicators of the government's unsatisfactory performance in the previous mandate.

Promises like "now we will find a solution to all the evils we have found" no longer hold water: they were found five years ago, and for five years they have not been solved. And now, do we have to listen to four more people about how the found mess will be solved, even though this mess was created by his previous government. If in the last mandate he could still say "we are trying to fix what they have destroyed for 20 years", in this mandate he can only say "we are trying to fix what we did not know how to manage ourselves".

* * *

After the failure of October and the holding of new elections, I had hope that Kurti would reflect and even reduce the number of ministries in search of greater efficiency.

But no. It turned out just as he had warned in October, that his government would take the form of an accordion with 19 ministries and even three deputy prime ministers (Why? I don't believe there is any other answer than accommodating the minority partners in power).

I am afraid that this does not mean that civil servants will now be transferred from one ministry to one of these new ones, but rather that it means hiring new people, possibly VV militants, to internally change the party-political structure of those who have already been working in institutions for years, and who were placed there by the parties that held power at the time, mainly PDK and LDK.

This is called the never-ending story, with consequences for Kosovo's budget and for the population: the bigger the administration, the more clumsy – because this is a fact that leaves room for dilemmas. This is something we have been experiencing since the end of the war.

So, we will have 19 ministers, of which, compared to the previous names, 10 are new. The following ministers continue their mandate: Maqedonci (Defense), Murati (Finance), Sveçla (MFA), Vitia (Health), Rizvanolli (Economy), Krasniqi (MLGA) and Rashiq (Communities...). They continue in the new ministries: Çeku (now Education), Gërvalla (Justice), Konjufca returns to the MFA after five years, Kusari-Lila to Trade and Industry after 15 years, while the following are inaugurated as ministers: Jagxhiu (Public Administration and Digitalization), Hoti (Labor, Family and War Values), Bogujevci (Culture), Gashani (Sports and Youth), Pacolli (Environment and Spatial Planning), Muja (Agriculture...), Basha (Infrastructure...), Demiri (Regional Development), instead of Damka who becomes Deputy Prime Minister for Minority Affairs.

The new government only has 5 women, one of whom is also the deputy prime minister, and I can say that it is quite disappointing.

The selection of names that Kurti made is also disappointing, having the chance this time to appoint non-partisans and specialists in certain fields, and not former MPs whose only experience is in NGOs, as not very successful political advisors or even in the Kosovo Assembly as supreme interpreters of regulations or even as "spin doctors" whenever the theses needed to be changed.

To be fair, this government should be given some time to settle in - the famous 100 days (if it gets there, which it may not get there due to the issue of the head of state), to see if the elected officials have the vision to develop the sectors they have taken under their leadership.

In the coming days, we will also find out how many deputy ministers this government will have (will it break the record of the Haradinaj government?) and how many political advisors will be engaged in work in these departments.

It remains to be seen whether the arrogance of the votes will allow this government to continue with the system installed in the last mandate – that of permanent incumbents with consistent violations of the law. It also remains to be seen whether Kurti will overcome that absurd stance of not replacing failed ministers even halfway through the mandate. It is much better to wait out the worst before it spreads and it is much more humane to admit the error in assessment before even greater damage has been done.

The insistence on keeping weak ministers in the previous government has created new consequences that need to be managed. A typical example was the Minister of Environment and Infrastructure, who for almost five years failed to fix the lighting that connects Pristina airport with the road leading to the capital, and who took four years to implement horizontal signaling on the highway to Prizren. I'm not even talking about other "major" projects.

* * *

After almost a year, we finally have a government. Good or bad, we will see in the coming months. But the fact that on Wednesday the entire procedure took several hours to complete without scandals, without speeches, without accusations..., proved that the crisis caused last year was only for narrow party interests that have caused us serious consequences, especially economic ones.

Now is the time for fewer words and much more work, with our feet on the ground and our eyes focused on the reality we live day by day.

I've been repeating it for a year now: Kosovo is not doing well economically. Not even the money that will come in the form of aid will solve the problem exacerbated by the constant political blockades.

We've heard enough nonsense and accusations. Now we need to see work and results.

But it's real work.

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