Kosovo, Europe’s youngest state and one of the Western Balkans’ smallest countries with about 1.7 million people, has been mired in political and institutional instability for more than a year. Two parliamentary elections in 2025 delivered a clear victory to Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his left-leaning Self-Determination party (Vetevendosje), but the crisis has now shifted to the presidency and deepened the deadlock.
President Vjosa Osmani’s five-year term ends on April 4. Under the constitution, parliament must elect the next president, but opposition parties in the assembly have refused to participate. They say Kurti already controls the executive and the speakership through his party and fear that a presidential victory would further concentrate his authority.
A presidential election in parliament requires 80 of the 120 deputies. Kurti and his partners representing non-Serb minorities command only 66 votes, so his party must reach an agreement with other groups. Kurti nominated his deputy and party figure Glauk Konjufca and another Self-Determination member, Fatmire Kollcaku, for the presidency at the parliamentary session set for March 5, 2026 — the last date allowed under the constitution. The opposition boycotted the session and did not propose an alternative candidate, so the vote failed.
The constitution requires the head of state to be chosen no later than 30 days before the outgoing president’s term ends, which meant the successor should have been elected by March 5. Because the parliamentary vote did not produce a president, the constitution provides for new parliamentary elections.
Osmani, who had previously been allied with Kurti but lost her party’s backing for re-election, said she regretted the breakdown and blamed political parties for failing to act in citizens’ interests. She issued a decree to dissolve parliament. Kurti challenged that move in the constitutional court. On March 9 the court issued a provisional order suspending Osmani’s dissolution until March 31 and barred further parliamentary actions in the interim.
The dispute centers on how to interpret the constitutional deadlines. Kurti argues the 30-day requirement marks the start of an electoral process rather than a hard cutoff, meaning parliament would still have 60 days after March 5 to elect a president. The constitutional court faces a complex interpretation and may take time to rule definitively; experts warn that this delay could create an institutional vacuum.
Parliamentary politics have been turbulent. Although Vetevendosje won in February 2025, Kurti initially struggled to secure a working majority because opposition parties refused to join him, a stalemate that prompted fresh elections on December 28, 2025. After winning more than 51% of the vote, Self-Determination convened a new parliament in mid-January 2026 and formed a government, but the scheduled presidential vote collapsed amid political maneuvering.
Observers say the system’s design — intended to promote consensus and compromise — clashes with often hierarchical, individualistic political behavior, making sustained single-party governance difficult. Ismet Kryeziu of the civil society network Democracy in Action highlights that tension, while analyst Naim Rashiti of the Balkan Policy Research Group warns that Kosovo’s political elite are eroding the country’s constitutional order.
Rashiti also says Kosovo’s international standing is suffering: allies increasingly see the country as unstable and slow to progress on EU integration, reforms, and dialogue with Serbia. He cautions that reversing that perception will take time and sustained reforms.
This article was originally published in German.