Kosovo’s Democracy Is Being Hijacked

A silent coup unfolds in Kosovo: entrenched warlords sabotage reform, paralyse parliament, and threaten the fragile democracy built after war.

In a country still grappling with the ghosts of its war-torn past, Kosovo stands today at a historic crossroads. The paralysis of its Parliament, now dragging into its third consecutive month since the February 2025 elections, is more than a procedural delay¹. It is the unfolding of a battle for the soul of a fragile democracy caught between reform and regression, transparency and entrenched corruption, sovereignty and foreign subversion².

At the heart of the impasse lies the refusal of opposition MPs to allow the constitutional formation of Kosovo’s new legislature. With 35 failed attempts to elect the Speaker of Parliament and fulfil the constitutional mandate to form government, the new legislature remains in limbo. Yet this boycott is not born of democratic dissent. It is a calculated obstruction, executed by political actors tethered to the country’s corrupt past-warlords-turned-politicians, whose decades-long grip on Kosovo’s institutions is now directly challenged by Prime Ministe…