Latest news with #KosovoParliament
Washington Post
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Kosovo's top court asks lawmakers to end their political stalemate and elect a speaker in 30 days
PRISTINA, Kosovo — Kosovo's Constitutional Court on Thursday asked the country's newly elected lawmakers in Parliament to end three months of political stalemate and elect a new speaker within 30 days. The court's move came at the request of 11 lawmakers, and it was not clear what would happen if lawmakers fail to abide by the court's wishes.
Associated Press
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Kosovo's top court asks lawmakers to end their political stalemate and elect a speaker in 30 days
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo's Constitutional Court on Thursday asked the country's newly elected lawmakers in Parliament to end three months of political stalemate and elect a new speaker within 30 days. The court's move came at the request of 11 lawmakers, and it was not clear what would happen if lawmakers fail to abide by the court's wishes. The Parliament has failed to elect a speaker since its first session on April 15 because other parties have been unwilling to work with that of acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whose left-wing Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje!, won only 48 out of 120 seats in the Feb. 9 election. That is down from 58 seats in 2021. Kurti's party has failed in 37 rounds of votes to receive the 61 votes needed to elect a new speaker. Without a speaker, Kurti cannot be formally nominated as prime minister and form a Cabinet. If the situation continues, the president can turn to any of the other parties. If no party can form a Cabinet, the country will face another parliamentary election. Kurti and the three main opposition parties have all ruled out working together in a coalition. The center-right Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, won 24 seats, the conservative governing Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, 20 seats, and the right-wing Alliance for Kosovo's Future, AAK, eight seats. Ten seats are reserved for Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority and 10 others belong to non-Serb minority members of Parliament. A new Cabinet is needed not only to run the economy and other services, but also proceed with the 14-year-long normalization talks with Serbia, which have stalled. Kosovo holds municipal elections Oct. 12. Around 11,400 people died, mostly from Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, which was formerly a province of Serbia. A 78-day NATO air campaign ended the fighting and pushed Serbian forces out. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with most Western nations recognizing its sovereignty, but Serbia and its allies Russia and China don't.
Reuters
21-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Kosovo's political stalemate could put EU funds at risk, trade body warns
GDANSK, Poland, May 21 (Reuters) - Kosovo's parliament failed to elect a new speaker for the 15th straight time on Wednesday, prompting fears of an economic backlash after months of political stalemate in one of Europe's poorest countries. Lawmakers have been meeting every 48 hours since mid-April to elect a new speaker, a step required before Prime Minister Albin Kurti, a leftist nationalist who failed to win a majority in a February election, can try to form a coalition government. But that is proving difficult without cross-party support: Albulena Haxhiu, Kurti's candidate for speaker, has repeatedly fallen shy of the 61 votes needed. On Wednesday she received 54 votes. The parliament is set to reconvene in two days. No law limits the stalemate, although some analysts have said that President Vjosa Osmani could call snap elections if it continues. However, if parliament keeps failing to elect a speaker, experts say Kosovo, a small Balkan country of 1.6 million people that gained independence from Serbia in 2008, risks delaying or losing sorely needed funding from the European Union and the World Bank that is earmarked for health, education and green energy. "There are projects and loans worth 700-800 million waiting to be voted in the parliament that are hanging because of the crisis," Lulzim Rafuna, president of Kosovo's Chamber of Commerce, told Reuters. "Businesses are in limbo without knowing what reforms, fiscal politics and what taxes they will have from the new government." Following a request for comment, Kosovo's outgoing deputy prime minister Besnik Bislimi said in a statement that no EU funds would be lost, and that a speaker should be approved so that parliament could vote through the funding. The crisis comes after an acrimonious election in which the opposition argued over major issues including Kosovo's tense relations with Serbia - an issue that led the EU to cut funding to Kosovo in 2023. In a Tuesday interview with public broadcaster RTK, Kurti offered no sign that he would change his candidate despite opposition demands to do so. "They (the opposition) don't believe that I have 61 votes to become prime minister and I am telling them test me," Kurti said. He did not say how he expected to win enough votes to form a government when he cannot get enough votes for his candidate for speaker.
