Dardan Sejdiu

The opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, led by MPs who left the opposition Vetevendosje party in March, is getting closer to the ruling coalition, analysts say - driven by its criticism of the latter's approach to the EU-led talks with Serbia.

Kosovo opposition parties have called for an extraordinary parliamentary session on September 4 to put a resolution to a vote which they say will protect the country's territorial integrity amid controversial suggestions of a land swap with Serbia as part of a final deal between Pristina and Belgrade.

The group of MPs who defected from the opposition Vetevendosje movement recently to form their own group in parliament have pledged to focus on pressing social issues that affect Kosovo.

Pristina's mayor Shpend Ahmeti resigned from the main Kosovo opposition party, Vetevendosje, late on Wednesday, several months after he won his second mandate as its mayoral candidate - highighting serious internal problems within the party.

Less than three weeks before polling day in the local elections in Kosovo on October 22, the race is hotting up in the capital, Pristina, where eight candidates are running for the position of mayor.

Voters say their expectations are linked more to basic needs that directly affect their daily lives than political party progammes.

Opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination Movement) party activists seized and overturned a second Serbian truck this month in protest against Belgrade’s policies on Kosovo.

Opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination Movement) party activists overturned the truck in protest at Belgrade’s refusal to distribute Kosovo schoolbooks that Pristina donated to ethnic Albanian pupils in Serbia.

The opposition Vetevendosje (Self Determination) movement announced another protest in Pristina after clashes this week between demonstrators and riot police that left 170 people injured.