Kosovo president proposes new prime minister to try to end impasse

TIRANA (Reuters) -President Vjosa Osmani has nominated former parliamentary speaker Glauk Konjufca as Kosovo's next prime minister to try to avert a snap election, despite resistance to his candidacy by opposition parties.

Konjufca has 15 days to present a government for approval by parliament, which last month rejected the candidacy of Albin Kurti, a leftist and Albanian nationalist who has been caretaker prime minister since an inconclusive election last February.

Opposition leaders said after rejecting Kurti's candidacy on October 26 that they would also reject Konjufca, who is an ally and aide to Kurti, and called for a snap election. 

PRESIDENT APPEALS TO PARLIAMENT

Months of political deadlock in the small Balkan country have contributed to a lack of reforms, the stalling of infrastructure projects and the freezing of some European Union and World Bank funding, and hindered Kosovo's EU integration.

Osmani urged parliament to back Konjufca as prime minister for the good of the country so that the 2026 state budget and several international financial agreements can be approved.

"As president, I have assessed that it is in Kosovo’s interest to attempt to form a government so these important decisions are not delayed for several more months," Osmani told a press conference late on Tuesday, adding that she would have to call a snap election if parliament rejected Konjufca.

Konjufca, 44, was proposed by Kurti's Vetevendosje party which finished first in February's election but did not secure a majority and has failed to reach an agreement with other parties on forming a government.

Opposition parties have refused to govern with Kurti, criticising him over his handling of relations with Kosovo's Western allies and over his actions in the country's ethnically divided north, where there is a Serb minority.

Kosovo, Europe's newest country, gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with backing from the United States after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces in 1999.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Angeliki Koutantou and Timothy Heritage)