PRISTINA: Kosovo votes on Sunday after a combative election campaign in which opposition candidates clashed with Prime Minister Albin Kurti over the economy, corruption and relations with the country’s old foe and neighbor Serbia.
Kurti, a leftist and Albanian nationalist, came to power in the small Balkan country in 2021 when a coalition run by his Vetevendosje party received more than 50 percent of votes and secured a seven-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament.
Political analysts say his popularity has been bolstered by moves to extend government control in Kosovo’s ethnic Serb-majority north. But critics say he has failed to deliver on education and health, and his policies in the north have distanced the country from its traditional allies, the European Union and the United States.
The EU placed economic curbs on the country in 2023 for its role in stoking tensions with ethnic Serbs, cutting at least 150 million euros ($155 million) in funding, Reuters has found.
A drop below 50 percent of the votes for Kurti’s party could potentially prompt coalition talks after the election.
Leading opposition parties include the center-right Democratic League of Kosovo which has campaigned on restoring relations with the United States and the EU, and joining NATO; and the Democratic Party of Kosovo, also center-right, which was founded by former guerilla fighters of Kosovo Liberation Army.
Nearly two million voters are registered in Kosovo. Voting starts at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) and ends at 7 p.m. Exit polls are expected soon after, and results later into the night.
KURTI’S DIVISIVE RHETORIC IN FOCUS
Kurti’s government has overseen some gains. Unemployment has shrunk from 30 percent to around 10 percent, the minimum wage is up and last year the economy grew faster than the Western Balkans average.
He says his policies in the north, which include reducing the long-held autonomy of Serbs living in Kosovo, are helping to bring ethnic Serbs and Albanians together under one system of government. But his rhetoric worries centrist politicians.
“When you have a bad neighbor, then you have to keep your morale high and your rifle full,” he said in a campaign speech near the Serbian border this week.
Differences of opinion have contributed to a bitter war of words with the opposition. The Elections Complaints and Appeals Panel, which monitors party and candidates’ complaints, has issued more than 650,000 euros in fines to parties this election season, three times the 2021 tally, data from NGO Democracy in Action show.
Kosovo, Europe’s newest country, gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with backing from the United States, which included a 1999 bombing campaign against Serbian forces.
![]()
Kosovo heads to election clouded by tensions with Serbia
Short Url
https://arab.news/nap2q
Kosovo heads to election clouded by tensions with Serbia
- A drop below 50 percent of the votes for Kurti’s party could potentially prompt coalition talks after the election
China to support ‘reunification forces’ in Taiwan, go after ‘separatists’
BEIJING: China will offer firm support for “patriotic pro-reunification forces” in Taiwan and strike hard against “separatists,” the top Chinese official in charge of policy toward the democratically-governed island said in comments published on Tuesday.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory despite the objections of the government in Taipei, has ramped up its military and political pressure against the island as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims.
Addressing this year’s annual “Taiwan Work Conference,” the ruling communist party’s fourth-ranked leader Wang Huning said officials must advance the “great cause of national reunification,” the official state-run Xinhua news agency said.
It is necessary to “firmly support the patriotic pro-unification forces on the island, resolutely strike against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, oppose interference by external forces, and safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Xinhua paraphrased him as saying.
The Beijing meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, underscoring how China sees Taiwan as an issue it needs to promote on the international stage.
China has long offered Taiwan a Hong Kong-style “one country, two systems” model of autonomy, though no major Taiwanese political party supports that.
Taiwan’s government says Beijing’s rule in the former British colony has only brought repression, with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Tuesday citing the sentencing of
Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai
to 20 years prison the previous day.
“Jimmy Lai’s sentencing exposes the Hong Kong national security law for what it is — a tool of political persecution under China’s ‘one country, two systems’ that tramples human rights & freedom of press,” Lai wrote on X.
There was no immediate response to Wang Huning’s comments from Taiwan’s government, which says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Beijing has repeatedly warned other countries including the US against meddling in Taiwan issue, which it said is its internal affair.
In a call with US President Donald Trump last week, China’s President Xi Jinping said the Taiwan issue is the most important issue in China-US relations and Washington must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.
China refuses to speak to Taiwan’s president and has rebuffed his repeated offers of talks, saying he is a “separatist” who must accept that Taiwan is part of China.
Wang was speaking just a week after meeting a delegation from Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), who were in Beijing for a meeting of party think-tanks.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday in Taipei, KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen, who led the delegation to Beijing, said there had been no discussion of political issues when they met Wang, as the trip there was to discuss topics like tourism and AI.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory despite the objections of the government in Taipei, has ramped up its military and political pressure against the island as Beijing seeks to assert its sovereignty claims.
Addressing this year’s annual “Taiwan Work Conference,” the ruling communist party’s fourth-ranked leader Wang Huning said officials must advance the “great cause of national reunification,” the official state-run Xinhua news agency said.
It is necessary to “firmly support the patriotic pro-unification forces on the island, resolutely strike against ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, oppose interference by external forces, and safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Xinhua paraphrased him as saying.
The Beijing meeting was also attended by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, underscoring how China sees Taiwan as an issue it needs to promote on the international stage.
China has long offered Taiwan a Hong Kong-style “one country, two systems” model of autonomy, though no major Taiwanese political party supports that.
Taiwan’s government says Beijing’s rule in the former British colony has only brought repression, with Taiwan President Lai Ching-te on Tuesday citing the sentencing of
Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai
to 20 years prison the previous day.
“Jimmy Lai’s sentencing exposes the Hong Kong national security law for what it is — a tool of political persecution under China’s ‘one country, two systems’ that tramples human rights & freedom of press,” Lai wrote on X.
There was no immediate response to Wang Huning’s comments from Taiwan’s government, which says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Beijing has repeatedly warned other countries including the US against meddling in Taiwan issue, which it said is its internal affair.
In a call with US President Donald Trump last week, China’s President Xi Jinping said the Taiwan issue is the most important issue in China-US relations and Washington must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.
China refuses to speak to Taiwan’s president and has rebuffed his repeated offers of talks, saying he is a “separatist” who must accept that Taiwan is part of China.
Wang was speaking just a week after meeting a delegation from Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), who were in Beijing for a meeting of party think-tanks.
Speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday in Taipei, KMT Vice Chairman Hsiao Hsu-tsen, who led the delegation to Beijing, said there had been no discussion of political issues when they met Wang, as the trip there was to discuss topics like tourism and AI.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.