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A woman votes during the parliamentary elections, in Pristina, Kosovo, February 9, 2025. R
Kosovo votes, but Kurti falls short of a majority
The Republic of Kosovo held parliamentary elections on Sunday, and with 88% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's party, Vetëvendosje (Self-Determination Movement), is ahead with 41% of the vote – a drop from the 50% Kurti got in 2021. This means he will likely need to form a coalition to stay in power.
Who could Kurti team up with? The Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, are projected to receive 22% and 18% respectively, while the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, the AAK, got 8%.
It is possible that the opposition parties could form a government on their own. Former Prime Minister and AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj said he was “looking forward to cooperating on the creation of an opposition government” to keep Kurti out of power, and Kurti himself has said he would not engage with the opposition parties. But Kurti seemed to have changed his tune late Sunday, declaring victory and vowing to govern. “We are the first party, the winning party that will create the next government,” he said. “We will continue to finish the work that we have started.”
What’s at stake? Under Kurti’s leadership, tensions escalated with both neighboring Serbia and Kosovo’s Serb minority. His left-leaning government banned the use of the Serbian dinar and shut post offices used by Serbs, drawing criticism from Western governments and leading the EU to suspend aid funding. In contrast, both the LDK and PDK are center-right and pro-Western, with the PDK campaigning on rejoining NATO and restoring relations with the US.
Should Kurti form the next government and continue with his anti-Serb stance, Kosovo risks becoming even more isolated. But should the opposition take power, it could redefine Kosovo’s relations with the US and the EU – which it wants to join – and potentially relaunch peace talks with Serbia.
Police officers patrol in the aftermath of a shooting, at the road to Banjska village, Kosovo September 24, 2023.
Trouble brews in the Balkans
Is Europe’s tinderbox once again set to explode?
Tensions are running high in Kosovo after three people were killed in a gun battle in a monastery in Leposavic, near the Serbian border. About thirty armed men stormed the building following a battle with police at a road blockade near the village of Banska, in which one officer was killed. Police managed to regain control of the monastery, arrested 6 gunmen, and found "an “extraordinarily large amount of weaponry and ammunition, explosives.”
According to Prime Minister Albin Kurti, police were attacked by "professionals, with military and police background" and police said they had used "an arsenal of firearms, including hand grenades and shoulder-fired missiles.” Kurti blamed "Serbia-sponsored criminals" for the attack. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucicspoke later on Sunday, condemned the attack but accused the Kosovo authorities of “brutal” treatment of the Kosovo Serbs.
Violence has been escalating following the Kosovo government’s decision to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities in May. Demonstrations ensued, including one in which thirty NATO peacekeepers were injured.
This latest incident comes one week after EU-mediated talks designed to normalize relations between Serbia and its former province ended in stalemate. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008, a decade after a bloody war with Serbia that claimed 10,000 lives, but Belgrade has since refused to recognize the country.
As a means of cooling the temperature, Brussels warned both countries that unless they put their differences aside and abide by the EU’s ten-point plan to end the latest round of tensions, they will not be allowed entry into the EU. If what happened this weekend is any indication, however, that goal is still a long way off.