PRISTINA: Voters in Kosovo cast ballots on Sunday in an early parliamentary election in hopes of breaking a political deadlock that has gripped the small Balkan nation for much of this year.
The snap vote was scheduled after Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s governing Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination, party failed to form a government despite winning the most votes in a Feb. 9 election.
The deadlock marked the first time Kosovo could not form a government since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following a 1998-99 war that ended in a NATO intervention.
The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament, after other mainstream parties refused an alliance.
According to Kosovo’s election laws, 20 parliamentary seats are automatically assigned to ethnic Serb representatives and other minority parties.
Another inconclusive vote would further deepen the crisis. Kosovo has already not approved a budget for next year, sparking fears of possible negative effects on the already poor economy in the country of 2 million people.
Lawmakers are set to elect a new president in March as current President Vjosa Osmani’s mandate expires in early April. If this fails too, another snap election must be held.
The main opposition parties are the Democratic League of Kosovo and the Democratic Party of Kosovo. They have accused Kurti of authoritarianism and of alienating Kosovo’s US and European Union allies since he came to power in 2021.
A former political prisoner during Serbia’s rule in Kosovo, the 50-year-old Kurti has taken a tough stand in talks mediated by the European Union on normalizing relations with Belgrade. In response, the EU and the United States imposed punitive measures.
Kurti has promised to buy military equipment to boost security.
No reliable pre-election polls have been published. Kurti’s party at the previous election won around 42 percent of the votes while the two main rival parties had together around 40 percent.
Analysts say that even the slightest changes in numbers on Sunday could prove decisive for the future distribution of power but that nothing is certain.
Tensions with restive ethnic Serbs in the north exploded in clashes in 2023 when scores of NATO-led peacekeepers were injured. In a positive step, ethnic Serb mayors this month took power peacefully there after a municipal vote.
Kurti has also agreed to accept third-country migrants deported from the United States as part of tough anti-immigration measures by the administration of President Donald Trump. One migrant has arrived so far, authorities have told The Associated Press.
Kosovo is one of the six Western Balkan countries striving to eventually join the EU, but both Kosovo and Serbia have been told they must first normalize relations.
Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
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Kosovo voters cast ballots in a second attempt this year to elect a government and avoid more crisis
- The prime minister’s party is again the favorite in the race, but it is unclear whether it will manage to muster a majority this time in the 120-member parliament
US Treasury chief says retaliatory EU tariffs over Greenland ‘unwise’
- He said Trump wanted control of the autonomous Danish territory because he considers it a “strategic asset” and “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
Davos: US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned European nations on Monday against retaliatory tariffs over President Donald Trump’s threatened levies to obtain control of Greenland.
“I think it would be very unwise,” Bessent told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos.
He said Trump wanted control of the autonomous Danish territory because he considers it a “strategic asset” and “we are not going to outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”
Asked about Trump’s message to Norway’s prime minister, in which he appeared to link his Greenland push to not winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Bessent said: “I don’t know anything about the president’s letter to Norway.”
He added, however, that “I think it’s a complete canard that the president will be doing this because of the Nobel Prize.”
Trump said at the weekend that, from February 1, Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden would be subject to a 10-percent tariff on all goods sent to the United States until Denmark agrees to cede Greenland.
The announcement has drawn angry charges of “blackmail” from the US allies, and Germany’s vice chancellor Lars Klingbeil said Monday that Europe was preparing countermeasures.
Asked later Monday on the chances for a deal that would not involve acquiring Greenland, Bessent said “I would just take President Trump at his word for now.”
“How did the US get the Panama Canal? We bought it from the French,” he told a small group of journalists including AFP.
“How did the US get the US Virgin Islands? We bought it from the Danes.”
Bessent reiterated in particular the island’s strategic importance as a source of rare earth minerals that are critical for a range of cutting-edge technologies.
Referring to Denmark, he said: “What if one day they were worried about antagonizing the Chinese? They’ve already allowed Chinese mining in Greenland, right?“
