In Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Kosovo, the social-democratic party Lëvizja Vetëndosje (‘Movement for Self-determination’, LVV) by the current Prime Minister Albin Kurti remained the greatest. The party won 40.8 percent of the votes, the Kosovar Central Elections Committee Monday evening. More than 99 percent of the votes have since been counted. Due to a technical malfunction, the result only became known later.
Despite his victory, Kurti leads a sensitive loss: the prime minister can no longer control Kosovo with a government that is only supported by his own party. In the previous elections, LVV still won 50.2 percent of the votes. Without an absolute majority, the Prime Minister must now look for coalition partners. With 22.2 percent of the votes, the Liberal PDK (Democratic Party of Kosovo) finished second, third, the conservative LDK (Democratic League of Kosovo) became 17.6 percent of the votes.
Both opposition parties, who already controlled Kosovo in the past, disagree with Prime Minister Kurti about the most tricky theme within Kosovar politics: the relationship with neighboring Serbia. In 2008, Kosovo separated from Serbia, which does not recognize the independence of the country. Around 50,000 Serbs live in North Kosovo, for whom Serbia demands more autonomy.
Prime Minister Kurti believes that they should just adapt to the Albanian majority. With his hard arrangement with regard to Serbia, Korti gained popularity, at the same time deteriorated the relationships with the European Union and the United States. They argue for rapprochement between the two Balkan countries. Opposition parties PDK and LDK seem to be more likely to do that line.
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The analysis of NRC before the elections