Gogic: The main impression after the elections is a convincing victory for Self-Determination

Political scientist Ognjen Gogic told Kosovo Online that the main impression after the snap parliamentary elections in Kosovo is a convincing victory for the Self-Determination Movement, which, as he says, no one expected.

“It was clear that they were the favorites to win, that they would win convincingly, and that they would probably improve their result compared to February, but I think no one expected it to reach almost 50 percent, which is the result they had in 2021. So they have in fact repeated their best result from four or more years ago,” Gogic said.

He assessed that this now represents a new factor influencing political life in Kosovo and future processes.

“This is nevertheless a dominant majority that enables Albin Kurti to form a government with the support of representatives of non-majority communities in parliament, who had been inclined toward him earlier as well. He was missing only a few mandates earlier this year to form a government, but this time he does not have to rely on MPs from the Albanian community who do not want to cooperate with him. MPs from minority communities will in fact be sufficient. That is the main impression of these elections,” Gogic noted.

He stressed that the convincing victory of Self-Determination is not good news for the Serbian community.

“Serbs did not have a good experience with Albin Kurti as prime minister, especially not with such a strong prime minister, so Serbs can meet these results with concern, because he has not indicated that he would change his attitude toward the Serbian community. That is, he intends to act unilaterally and to adopt decisions and measures that do not take into account the interests and needs of the Serbian community,” he said.

Nevertheless, Gogic believes that the matter does not end there.

“Albin Kurti can certainly form a stable parliamentary majority, that is, a government, but the real question for him is whether he can secure the election of the president of Kosovo. Namely, this complicates decision-making processes in the future, because by March 5 Kosovo must elect a president in parliament, as Vjosa Osmani’s term expires. If the president is not elected within that deadline, the assembly is dissolved and new parliamentary elections are called, regardless of how much support Kurti may have to form a government. We now have a race against time as to whether all processes and steps can be completed within that deadline, first to confirm the election results, then to constitute the parliament, and then to reach an agreement on the election of the president. It is not certain that this can be completed within the remaining time frame,” Gogic concluded.