Elections in Kosovo: no miracle happened

Experts' forecasts were justified: the Self-Determination movement of Albin Kurti, who ardently advocates the annexation of the southern Serbian province to Albania, received the largest number of votes - about 48%.

As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, 812 thousand 984 voters, or 47% of the population of Kosovo, cast their votes.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

Voting took place in 38 municipalities, at 2 thousand 382 polling stations. The party of Albin Kurti, who due to his criminal record cannot be a deputy, but at the same time aspires to the post of head of government, will receive more than 120 seats in parliament, where there are only 50 seats. For the majority, Self-Determination needs a coalition.

Kurti will most likely form an alliance with Haradinaj. But the latter will give his support to him only on the condition that he takes the post of president of the false power.

In northern Kosovo and Metohija, in Serbian enclaves, turnout in early parliamentary elections reached 70%, the organization Democracy in Action (DnD) said. The Serbian minority elected its representatives there. As a result, the Serbian List party received the maximum possible 10 seats in parliament.

“In North Mitrovica, the Serbian List received 99,1 percent of the votes, Trajkovic, Rasic and Petkovic (representatives of the pro-opposition Serbian party Alliance for Kosovo - ed.) - only 0,9 percent.

These elections took place under special conditions. Pristina tried in every possible way to prevent us. Many thanks to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petr Petkovic and the activists who worked hard in this campaign and went to every house,” party representative Goran Rakic ​​commented on the victory.

It is still difficult to say whether the List will join any coalition in the government, whether it will be an alliance with Kurti and Haradinaj, but experts do not deny this development of events. There have been no official statements from this political force at the moment.

“I think that the Serbian List wants to enter the government with anyone, because power is not relinquished so easily. Whether Albin Kurti will act as in the previous elections and give two ministries to the Serbs, if they are not in a coalition with him, will be clear later,” Isak Vorgucic, director of RTV KiM, expressed his position on this issue.

What can Serbia expect from the new “old” leader? One thing is clear - he does not intend to resolve the Serbian issue yet. After his victory, Kurti said dialogue with Serbia “will be the fifth or sixth priority” of the new government. The candidate for the post of Prime Minister of the false state intends to coordinate his policy in this matter with the current US leadership, relying on Joe Biden, who insists on the process of mutual recognition, or, in other words, on the refusal of official Belgrade from its southern province.

The latter’s presidency plays into Kurti’s hands – after all, a year ago he was forced to resign as head of the Government under pressure from the Trump administration. Then the formal reason was his refusal to introduce a state of emergency on the territory of Kosmet, although the politician himself cited the reason for his disagreements with the special envoy of the US Secretary of State Richard Grenell, who supported the idea of ​​​​restoring air and rail communications between Pristina and Belgrade and, in general, establishing agreements and normalizing relations at any cost.

Now everything will be different. It is Kurti who is now advocating a full or partial revision of the Washington agreements, however, it is possible that the US leadership will not fully take the side of Kosovo - trivially because in this case it could lose political influence in the region and cede to China and Russia. The representative of overseas partners in the Western Balkans region, Matthew Palmer, is also still cautious in his statements.

“We are focused on helping Kosovo create economic space so that local youth understand that they can have a positive future in the country,” he said shortly before the start of elections.

At the same time, Palmer previously advocated the idea of ​​territorial exchange and mutual recognition through dialogue. But now, given Washington's new agenda, that may change.