Avdullah Hoti
Avdullah Hoti (born 4 February 1976) is a Kosovan politician, who is serving as the Prime Minister of Kosovo[a] since 3 June 2020. He previously served as the Minister of Finance of Kosovo between 2014 and 2017 in the PDK/LDK coalition government.
Avdullah Hoti | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 5th Prime Minister of Kosovo | |
| Assumed office 3 June 2020 | |
| President | Hashim Thaçi Vjosa Osmani (Acting) |
| Preceded by | Albin Kurti |
| First Deputy Prime Minister | |
| In office 3 February 2020 – 25 March 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Albin Kurti |
| Preceded by | Behgjet Pacolli |
| Succeeded by | Besnik Tahiri |
| Minister of Finance of Kosovo | |
| In office 8 December 2014 – 2 August 2017 | |
| Prime Minister | Isa Mustafa |
| Preceded by | Bedri Hamza |
| Succeeded by | Agim Krasniqi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 February 1976 Ratkovac, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia (now Ratkoc, Kosovo) |
| Political party | Democratic League |
| Spouse(s) | Servete Ukaj Hoti |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Pristina Staffordshire University |
| Signature | .svg.png.webp) |
In September 2020, Hoti signed the agreement on the normalisation of economic relations with Serbia and accession to the Mini Schengen Zone, as well as on the mutual recognition between Kosovo and Israel and the establishment of the diplomatic relations. He has an active role in the European Union-mediated negotiations between the governments of Serbia and Kosovo.
Political career
He joined the political party LDK in 2006. He was elected as vice president of Pristina (Kosovo’s capital) in the 2008 communal elections. He served that job until the next comunal elections in 2013, when his party lost the city. In the next year, he candidated in the parlamential elections as Minister of Finance and he was elected. He served the job until 2017 when the government was voted out by a no-confidence motion. Then, he was the coalition's candidate for Prime Minister of Kosovo in the Kosovan parliamentary election of 2017. He became the head of the LDK parliamentary group from 2017 until 2020, when he took office as First Deputy Prime Minister.[1] He was nominated by the LDK to be his party's nominee for PM after the Kurti government failed a confidence vote, but his eligibility to be PM was questioned by Albin Kurti and his party on the grounds that one cannot form a government without first having the party that won the election enter government, and they demanded new elections. However, on 28 May 2020, the Constitution Court of Kosovo gave the right to the second party and Avdullah Hoti to form a government without elections. After the party that won the elections failed again to form a new government, the Court argued that Avdullah Hoti was eligible to proceed to be voted on by the Parliament as the new PM of the Republic of Kosovo. On 3 June 2020, Hoti was elected Prime Minister with 61 votes in favor, 24 against and one abstention.[2]
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On 2 August 2020, Hoti announced on his Facebook page that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 suffering mild symptoms, and that he would work from home in the coming two weeks.[3]
On September 4, 2020, Hoti and Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia, signed an agreement on the normalisation of economic relations between Serbia and Kosovo at the White House in the presence of Donald Trump, President of the United States.[4] The deal will encompass freer transit, including by rail and road, while both parties agreed to work with the Export–Import Bank of the United States and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation and to join the Mini Schengen Zone, but the agreement also included the mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.[5][6]
On 21 December 2020, the constitutional court of Kosovo ruled that the vote of lawmaker Etem Arifi, of the minority Ashkali Party for Integration, for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti was invalid and consequently "the Government did not have the majority of the votes of the lawmakers.” Arifi's vote gave the government 61 votes in the 120-seat chamber, and without it the vote would have failed. As a result, Kosovo must go to snap elections and the Hoti government is now a caretaker one until the elections are held.
Countries visited
List of official visits abroad made by Avdullah Hoti as Prime Minister:
| # | Country | Year | Cities visited | Type of visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  European Union |
25 June 2020 | Brussels | Official visit |
| 2 |  Albania |
3 July 2020 | Tirana | Official visit |
| 3 |  France |
7 July 2020 | Paris | Official visit |
| 4 |  United States |
1–5 September 2020 | Washington, D.C. | 2020 Kosovo–Serbia agreement |
| 5 | European Union |
6–8 September 2020 | Brussels | Belgrade–Pristina negotiations |
| 6 | Albania |
2 October 2020 | Tirana | Meeting |
| 7 |  North Macedonia |
23 October 2020 | Skopje | Official visit |
| 8 |  Italy |
3 November 2020 | Rome | Official visit |
| 9 |  Vatican City |
5 November 2020 | Vatican City | Official visit |
Notes
| a. | ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008. Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.
References
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