Mitic: Kurti’s strong result influenced by the deliberately chosen election date and support from Brussels

Senior research fellow at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, Aleksandar Mitic, told Kosovo Online that there are several circumstances that contributed to Albin Kurti’s party achieving a strong result in yesterday’s elections, including voters punishing opposition parties, the deliberately chosen election date, and Brussels’ support for Kurti ahead of the elections in the form of an announcement that sanctions against Kosovo would be lifted.

Mitic notes that such a strong result for Kurti’s party, more than 49 percent, came as a surprise even to many in Kosovo.

“Voters probably grew tired of several election cycles and realized that there was no real alternative that would allow for a different coalition made up of opposition parties. In a way, this is also a form of punishment for those opposition parties that either did not want to enter into a coalition with Kurti or were themselves unable to create an alternative. We all know how divided they are and what their relations were like in the past. So this is a kind of punishment, primarily for the LDK, which achieved an extremely poor result by losing around five mandates. That is an unexpected outcome,” Mitic said.

On the other hand, he adds, the timing of the elections also likely contributed to the result, as the date was clearly chosen deliberately to coincide with the period when the Albanian diaspora comes for the New Year holidays.

“This simply contributed to higher turnout and to more radical votes that led to such a result. Also, one should not forget that many were clearly encouraged by the boost Kurti received from Ursula von der Leyen’s announcement, just about ten days before the elections, regarding the lifting of the so-called restrictive measures. That had a direct impact on the campaign, even though those measures did not significantly harm Kurti, but stood as a kind of political pressure. He received that support from Brussels and managed to capitalize on it. Of course, one should not forget his anti-Serb rhetoric, which clearly continues to receive enormous support among the Albanian population, which is truly discouraging,” Mitic assessed.

As for what Serbs in Kosovo can expect from Kurti as prime minister in a new term, Mitic notes that this remains to be seen, as in the previous period Kurti slightly reduced tensions, but only after achieving his political goals by carrying out ethnic cleansing.

“We will see how he behaves now in this new context, when there is no clear pressure coming from Brussels and Washington, and when, on the other hand, he has a clear situation regarding the formation of the government,” he said.

In Pristina, he adds, a process to elect the president of Kosovo is also forthcoming, for which Kurti will need a certain level of cooperation with opposition and minority parties, as a different type of majority is required.

Regarding the dialogue with Belgrade, Mitic notes that in the year drawing to a close there was, in a way, a pause in this process, but that it is clear that the coming year will bring much more dynamism and pressure, primarily on Belgrade.