Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti wins new elections by a clear margin

The left-wing reformist prime minister secures a government majority at the second attempt. His supporters celebrate exuberantly. Albin Kurti asserts that his team still has a lot of work to do.

Keystone-SDA

29.12.2025, 04:38

29.12.2025, 05:01

SDA

Prime Minister Albin Kurti's ruling party Vetevendosje has clearly won the early parliamentary elections in Kosovo. After almost all polling stations had been counted, the social democratic formation received 49.4 percent of the vote, according to the state election commission in the capital Pristina.

This means that Vetevendosje (meaning "self-determination") will receive almost half of the seats in the new parliament and could, together with some parties from the ethnic minorities, have a majority in government, wrote the portal "koha.net". It was the second parliamentary election this year. It became necessary because there was no clear majority after the last regular election on February 9 and Kurti was unable to agree on a coalition with any of the opposition parties. Previously, the 50-year-old politician had practically governed alone.

Kurti's supporters celebrate

Supporters of the ruling party drove through Pristina in motorcades, honking their horns. Fireworks lit up the sky. "After fair, democratic and free elections, we are even more victorious today than we were at the beginning of February," Kurti said in a short speech that was broadcast on television. With the new mandate, the government would face many tasks, "the good work done so far must be continued", he added.

According to the electoral commission, the liberal Democratic Party (PDK) received 21 percent of the vote, the bourgeois Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) 13.6 percent and the conservative Alliance for the Future (AAK) 5.7 percent. Under the Kosovan electoral system, the Serbian minority is entitled to ten seats in the 120-seat parliament, while the other ethnic groups - including Bosniaks, Turks and Roma - are entitled to a further ten.

Vetevendosje improved by seven percentage points compared to February. The PDK maintained its share of the vote, while the LDK lost more than four percentage points. Voter turnout was 45%, slightly lower than in February (46.6%).

Observers: election date could have helped

Commentators attributed Vetevendosje's success to the party's great mobilization potential. The election date between Christmas and New Year also helped. During this period, many Kosovars who work abroad, including in Germany, visit their homeland. This group of voters supports Vetevendosje to a particularly high degree.

The youngest state in Europe

Kurti has been in power since 2021 in Europe's youngest state, which declared its independence in 2008 and is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians. The former Serbian province broke away from the disintegrating Yugoslavia and seceded from Serbia following an armed uprising by the KLA militia and a NATO intervention in 1999. Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo's independence and continues to claim the territory for itself.

During his time in office, Kurti abolished the parallel institutions supported by the Serbian government in the north of the country, which borders Serbia and is almost exclusively inhabited by Serbs. In doing so, he also accepted conflicts with the European Union, which advocated a restrained approach and imposed punitive measures on Kosovo. The EU withdrew some of the measures this month.

The reforms promised by Kurti have so far only partially taken shape. New laws aimed at curbing corruption have not yet been effectively implemented, critics complain. For the EU, Kosovo is only considered a potential candidate for membership. The reason for this is that five EU countries - Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia - have not yet recognized the country's independence.