Kosovo’s Ruling Party Loses Majority But Could Still Lead Government (Worthy News Focus)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PRISTINA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Kosovo’s ruling party, Vetevendosje, or Self-Determination Movement, has won the parliamentary election, official results showed Monday.

Still, exit polls and preliminary results showed that it must negotiate a coalition with others to form a government.

With most votes counted, Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s leftist Self-Determination Movement Party had won about 41 percent of the ballots cast.

The election result would drop the party from the more than 50 percent it won in 2021.

But it puts Kurti in a position to lead the next government in a country whose politics are overshadowed by tensions between the ethnic Albanian majority and minority Serbs and Kosovo’s troubled relationship with neighboring Serbia.

After four years of ruling alone, the Self-Determination Movement party faces the prospect of having to strike a deal with one of its bitter rivals.

Those opponents include the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, which came second with 22.5 percent; the third-placed Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, which won 17.7 percent; and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, which came fourth with 7.5 percent.

During the run-up to Sunday’s vote, Kurti suggested that he would prefer to sit as the opposition if his party could not form a majority government.

Yet, as the votes were counted, Kurti said his party would try to form a government. “Congratulations on our victory,” he told supporters.

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