Landslide Vote Restores Political Stability in Kosovo
With over half the vote, Vetëvendosje ended a year long deadlock, empowering Kurti to govern alone and confront corruption, organised crime and Serbian pressure directly.
Kosovo’s governing party claimed a decisive victory in parliamentary elections on Sunday1, according to official results and local media reporting, ending months of uncertainty and handing Prime Minister Albin Kurti a renewed and strengthened mandate at a moment of political and economic strain for Europe’s youngest state.
With ballots counted late into the night, Lëvizja Vetëvendosje secured more than half of the national vote, a threshold that would allow it to govern without relying on reluctant coalition partners. The outcome marked a sharp reversal from elections held in February, when the party emerged first but fell short of a majority, triggering a prolonged institutional paralysis.
The vote followed the dissolution of parliament by President Vjosa Osmani after nearly a year of failed coalition talks that froze legislative work, delayed international financing and raised concerns among Western partners about political stability in Pristina. Sunday’s election was the second parliamentary contest in Kosovo this year.
Speaking earlier on Albanian broadcaster MCN TV, Vudi Xhymshiti , chief editor of the Gunpowder Chronicles, said the result reflected broad public support for Kurti’s leadership and a rejection of what he described as orchestrated narratives aimed at undermining the government. He argued that exit polls circulated by some outlets lacked credibility and that voter sentiment on the ground had consistently favoured the incumbent prime minister and his party.
Xhymshiti credited the government with maintaining fiscal discipline, pursuing anti corruption efforts and confronting organised crime, while adopting a more assertive stance towards Serbia and its influence in Kosovo, particularly in the Serb majority north. He also accused opposition parties of failing to reform, alleging continued links to criminal networks and past cooperation with structures aligned with Belgrade.
The opposition has rejected such claims, but has remained deeply divided and unwilling to govern with Kurti. Analysts say this refusal was a central factor behind the year long deadlock that preceded the vote. As previously reported by Reuters2, the impasse delayed the ratification of around one billion euros in loan agreements from the European Union and the World Bank and threatened to complicate the election of a new president scheduled for April.
Tensions with Serbia have remained a defining issue of Kurti’s tenure. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 with strong United States backing, a move Serbia still refuses to recognise. Relations deteriorated sharply in 2023 after violent incidents in the north, leading the European Union to impose temporary measures on Kosovo that officials say cost the country hundreds of millions of euros in lost funding.
Kurti’s supporters view his confrontational approach as a defence of sovereignty and institutional integrity, while critics argue it has strained ties with key Western allies. During the campaign, the prime minister pledged higher public sector pay, increased capital investment and the creation of new mechanisms to combat organised crime, while opposition parties focused on living standards and economic growth.
Sunday’s emphatic result appears to have settled, at least for now, the question of who will govern Kosovo. For the first time since the crisis began, the country looks set to form a stable government capable of reopening parliament, unlocking stalled funds and steering the republic through a sensitive period in its relations with both Serbia and the West.
Kosovo, Not Serbia, Is Britain’s Front Line Against Moscow
Two years on from the Banjska attack, the lesson for Europe is not simply about a firefight in a northern Kosovo village. It is about geography, choices, and clarity. Ukraine is the frontline of Russia’s brutal expansion eastward; Kosovo is the frontline of its infiltration westward. To ignore that is to repeat the blindness that allowed Crimea to be annexed in 2014 and to invite the same consequences in the Balkans tomorrow.