Kosovo goes to the polls on Sunday to end a year of political paralysis

Prime Minister Kurti desperately seeks an absolute majority under the impatient gaze of his international allies MADRID, December 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Kosovo will hold snap elections next Sunday as part of a year-end effort to try to end the political crisis sparked in February, the start of a blockade that led to two failed attempts to form a government, with the 2026 budget awaiting almost impossible approval and with them, millions of euros in EU aid.

Vetëvendosje (Self-Determination), the left-wing party of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, clearly won the elections earlier this year, but not with the absolute majority it sought. The 42.3 percent obtained, almost double the 20.3 percent of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the 18.3 percent of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), anticipated clear prospects for the president.

Kurti was forced to enter government with rivals who did not give him the slightest inch of room to maneuver. The country needed 70 votes to elect the President of Parliament, an essential condition for launching the political process since he is responsible for establishing the legislative calendar.

As early as the summer, the American Embassy in Kosovo was already publicly expressing its impatience: “This continuing impasse is delaying progress toward Kosovo’s future aspirations and endangering the integrity of the institutions for which the people of Kosovo have fought so hard.”

This is happening in a country where the official unemployment rate currently exceeds 25 percent and around a fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.

The EU has recently provided an important lifeline. On December 17, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday that Brussels was lifting economic sanctions against Kosovo following the “peaceful” transfer of power in the north after recent local elections. It is worth recalling that the EU adopted temporary measures against Pristina, including the suspension of high-level visits and the freezing of financial cooperation, due to the lack of progress in defusing tensions in the Serbian-majority northern municipalities.

Kurti emerges as the declared winner of the elections. The problem is whether he will obtain at once the 61 seats (half plus one) of the 120 in the Kosovo Parliament to obtain the desired absolute majority in the midst of enormous discontent, the main electoral weapon of his rivals, the former governor of the central bank and recently elected president of the PDK, Bedri Hamza and the young leader of the LDK, the 42-year-old economist Lumir Abdixhiku, third in the running but decisive if he ends up tilt his party. support for the president.