The Weakest Link of Kosovo's Democracy - KFOS

60
The circumstances surrounding the change of
Prime Minister
An extraordinary pressure was exerted against ex-Prime Minister Kosumi as he in fact
was proven to have broken the law. However, the breaches of law committed by the
ministers were even more drastic and frequent. These ministers are continuing in their
positions to this very day. The Kosovo press started to write about the total lack of
political power shown by Kosumi vis-a-vis the party which had nominated him. Very
soon he ended up in a rough relation with the head of the party (AAK) and thus he was
fired. The reason behind the dismissal was not to punish Kosumi for his inefficiency or
corruption but was simply a price he had to pay because he had lost the confidence he
enjoyed from the head of AAK. On the 1st of March, 2006, Bajram Kosumi resigned as
Prime Minister of Kosovo, claiming that this was his moral obligation whereas in fact
he had no other choice.
At the same time as Kosumi was dismissed also the head of Parliament, Daci, was dismissed
on the 1st of March. Daci, an arrogant leader and with corruption affairs behind
him, had won the trust from his party, LDK, only three weeks earlier.
However, time has shown that the changes were just of a cosmetic nature aiming at
calming the public opinion which kept turning more and more hostile to the Kosovo
Government institutions 11 .
Mr. Çeku “Burned”
On the 10th of March, 2006, by 65 votes pro, 33 against, and 5 abstaining, Agim Çeku
was appointed the new Prime Minister of Kosovo, inheriting all ministers and deputy
ministers from the “Kosumi” and “Haradinaj” governments, respectively. 12 The first
bitter taste Mr Çeku experienced by not being allowed to carry out what normally is
the right of any Prime Minister: to appoint his own cabinet. His room for manouver
was limited from the very beginning. It was expected that he would refuse to be Prime
Minister in these circumstances but instead he stepped forward with a statement which
surprised a lot. He said: We will start like this and then we will see what to do.
After the first Government meeting headed by new Prime Minister Çeku, he had told
his ministers that they had 100 days to prove themselves and after this period he
would evaluate each minister separately to decide if they could stay as ministers or
not. 13 The two parties had previously unanimously declared their strong support for
their ministers. This happened in spite of the fact that the majority of the ministers
repeatedly had proven themselves to be corrupted, in breach of law and incompetent
to head the work of their ministries. Some of them had even shown the same behavior
and incompetence already when previously they were head of municipalities. However
that may be, the Kosovo opinion, lacking mechanisms to express their support or
11 See Early Warning Report #12 by UNDP October-December, 2005.
12 All daily papers.
13 All daily papers.