The Kosovo Parliament experienced a fight this Thursday between opposition deputies and several government ministers, including the Prime Minister, Albin Kurti.
According to the Kossev news portal, a deputy from the PDK opposition party threw water on the head of government while he was speaking to parliamentarians about the current tension in northern Kosovo, where the Balkan country’s Serb minority is concentrated.
The deputy prime minister was also attacked with water and Kurti’s close associate Besnik Bislimi, who hit the assailant over the head with a glass bottle.
Then a fistfight broke out between dozens of people, including deputies and ministers, until the president of Parliament called the police to calm the situation.
Meanwhile, the bodyguards had already led the prime minister away from the crowd.
The direct cause of the incident, of which the parties involved accuse each other, is still unknown.
The opposition had placed a banner in the chamber with the image of Kurti with a “Pinocchio” nose – a fictional character whose nose grows when he lies – and which was broken by Bislimi.
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Opponents criticize the left-wing nationalist Kurti for his policies, especially for tensions with the Serbs and the lack of coordination with the United States and other Western powers, which they consider to be the main supporters of their unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008.
The European Union (EU), mediator in the normalization dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia, has frozen some community funds to Pristina due to Kurti’s reluctance to meet their demands to reduce tensions in the north.