KOSOVO’S 51 PERCENT, STUCK IN LIMBO

February produced 42.3 percent and a hostage parliament. December produced 51 percent. The deadlock ended, briefly, then reappeared wearing legal language.

In February 2025, Kosovo held parliamentary elections that produced a clear but politically contested outcome. The governing movement led by the acting prime minister, Albin Kurti, emerged with 42.3 percent of the vote. It was the strongest mandate of any party since independence, but not sufficient to form a government unimpeded. What followed was a prolonged institutional deadlock. Opposition parties, acting jointly despite ideological differences, withheld cooperation in parliament, blocking the consolidation of a new government. The mechanisms were procedural rather than spectacular. Parliamentary sessions failed for lack of quorum. Committees stalled. Time limits embedded in law were pushed to their edges without formally being breached.