Kosovo votes amid ethnic tensions

By Stefan J. Bos

Camera crews struggle to get a glimpse of Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti as he cast his ballot in the parliamentary election of this small but strategic Balkan nation of 1.6 million people.

Opinion polls suggested that his nationalist Vetëvendosje ("Self-determination") party would receive the most votes but not enough to form a majority government.

Yet Kurti already warned he wasn’t interested in a coalition with any significant opposition parties, suggesting more political turmoil in Kosovo.   

Polls appeared to show that many voters are pleased that Kurti, who led the government since 2021, succeeded where his predecessors failed: He tightened the control of the Albanian-majority government over a rebellious Serb area on its northern border.

Kosovo’s mainly Orthodox Serb minority is variously estimated to be 4 to 8 percent of the population, and many remain loyal to Belgrade rather than Pristina.

The local Serbs’ most significant stronghold is on the north side of the town of Mitrovica near the Serbian border.

Dismantling institutions

However, Prime Minister Kurti recently succeeded in deploying Kosovo police, shutting down parallel institutions, and enforcing the use of the euro over the Serbian dinar currency.

And he, with his party, campaigned to dismantle the remaining Serbian institutions in Kosovo while expanding the central government’s reach over Serb-majority areas.

That worries neighboring Serbia, which never recognized Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. The United States and the European Union have expressed concern.

Ethnic tensions have overshadowed developments welcomed by the international community, such as the government’s success in radically reducing unemployment, raising the minimum wage, and achieving economic growth above the regional average.