After four months: Speaker of parliament elected in Kosovo

Dimal Basha (45), a member of parliament from the Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party, which has the most votes, received the votes of 73 MPs, while 30 representatives voted against him, according to media reports in the capital Pristina.

The vote for the speaker of parliament had dragged on for around 60 sessions. The reason for this is that although the Vetevendosje party of caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti won the most recent parliamentary elections on February 9, it no longer has an absolute majority in the new parliament. The new parliament convened for its first session in mid-April.

At the same time, Kurti has not yet succeeded in finding coalition partners. It is expected that President Vjosa Osmani will task him with forming a new government as the leader of the party with the most votes. He would then have 15 days to do so. If he fails to do so, new elections will be due. Until then, Kurti will remain in office in an acting capacity.

Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, used to be a Serbian province. After armed uprisings by Kosovo Albanians and a war in which NATO intervened, the country declared its independence in 2008. More than 100 countries have recognized its independence - but not Serbia, Russia and some EU states. Kosovo therefore only has the status of a "potential EU candidate country".