Vjosa Osmani

Six weeks after snap elections, parliament in Kosovo on Monday voted in Albin Kurti as Prime Minister for the second time within 13 months, after a long parliamentary debate.

Some 67 of the 120 MPs in the parliament supported Kurti's candidacy while 30 voted against. 

Taking Stock

Kosovo Acting President, Vjosa Osmani, L), and leader of Vetevendosje Movement, Albin Kurti, R), give a joint victory speech after the preliminary results of February 14 snap parliamentary elections showed Vetevendosje won by a landslide. Photo: BIRN/ Urim Krasnii

"It is in Kosovo's interest to benefit from this historic opportunity and push forward Kosovo's requests by lobbying the US administration," said Violeta Haxholli, a researcher at the Kosovo Democratic Institute, KDI, a Pristina-based think tank.

Dialogue 'will be imposed as important'

Chronicle of a defeat foretold

Workers place a giant electoral poster showing candidate for prime minister of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Avdullah Hoti in Pristina, Kosovo, February 4, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ

Political leaders in Kosovo have accepted the landslide victory of the Vetevendosje Movement in Sunday's snap parliamentary elections, with some saying they took responsibility for their own parties' poor showing.

Acting President Vjosa Osmani paid tribute at Ibrahim Rugova's memorial in Pristina, saying that the path that he paved "remains a permanent guideline" for Kosovo.

Voters at the last parliamentary elections in Pristina, October 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Kosovo's Acting President Vjosa Osmani. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

In September 2020, the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia, Avdullah Hoti and Aleksandar Vucic, signed agreements at the White House on mainly economic issues in the presence of President Donald Trump. The agreements were signed separately by Kosovo and Serbia with the US, not with each other.

The Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti's government is illegitimate because it was voted in by a majority in the Kosovo Assembly that included a vote cast by MP Etem Arifi, who was given a prison sentence for corruption.

Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, in coordination with acting Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, on Thursday dismissed the chief of the Kosovo Intelligence Agency, KIA, Kreshnik Gashi, allegedly for trying to obtain confidential documents from the President's office.