When Albin Kurti took office as Kosovo’s prime minister in 2021 after a sweeping electoral win, many LGBTQ+ people in Kosovo saw it as an opportunity for tangible progress on equal rights. Kurti’s government, grounded in promises of reform and justice, presented the possibility of an inclusive future. 

Four years later, that optimism has largely evaporated. Frustration and disillusion among queer Kosovars abounds, as Kurti has yet to demonstrate the leadership necessary to usher the country, with progressive ideals, into the future. 

This failure is exemplified by the stalled draft Civil Code, which includes provisions for same-sex unions. Homophobic lawmakers in Kurti’s own party, Vetëvendosje (VV), have repeatedly obstructed its passage, either by abstaining or openly opposing it. Their actions fall into a far-reaching pattern of patriarchal bravado in which equality is framed as a threat rather than a democratic imperative. 

“Hajt se bohet mirë,” meaning “It’ll get better,” was once a hopeful mantra for Albanians living under oppressive Serbian rule in Kosovo. For a growing number of citizens today, however, the phrase has devolved into a hollow refrain. Decades of elections and leadership changes have yielded disturbingly familiar results: rising living costs, stagnant wages, woefully inadequate pensions and negligible advances in LGBTQ+ rights.

LGBTQ+ Kosovars, who endure systemic discrimination as equal rights initiatives are obstructed, experience this daily. It is an indictment of a leadership driven by personal ambition and self-serving priorities, rather than a commitment to the welfare of all citizens, including those in marginalized communities. 

In our conversations with four members of Kosovo’s LGBTQ+ community — Mustafë Berisha; Arlinda Morina, known professionally as Liki; Brianka and Queen Maggy — a somber consensus took shape: bad governance has gone unpunished, while obstruction of equal rights remains unchallenged.  

Post-election Kosovo

Following the February 2025 elections, Kosovars are grappling with a familiar predicament. Politicians continue to promise transformation but deliver inefficiency and an alarming lack of accountability. Electoral campaigns continue to lean on broad, alluring promises and platitudes about EU integration, job creation and social spending — vague but effective in appealing to voters. 

Meanwhile, the country’s leaders neglect citizens’ concerns about critical sectors like health care, infrastructure and education. The lack of universal health care forces many citizens to delay or forgo medical treatment due to cost, while students — who spend only half a day in school — consistently score below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average in international assessments. Simultaneously, power outages remain a chronic issue, underscoring that infrastructure cannot meet modern demands.

Among marginalized groups, particularly the LGBTQ+ community, dissatisfaction is even more acute. Kosovo’s LGBTQ+ community experienced the recent election campaign as an extended exercise in erasure. Mediocrity in both rhetoric and vision dominated the political landscape, but more importantly, the absence of any acknowledgment — or advocacy — for queer Kosovars was particularly disheartening. 

Across the political spectrum, no party dared support the LGBTQ+ community’s fight for equality, not to mention integrating LGBTQ+ rights into its political agenda. This silence reflects a longstanding reluctance to embrace inclusivity in all its forms within Kosovo’s power structures. The campaign laid bare queer Kosovars’ precarious place and daily realities, navigating a system that refuses to recognize their existence, let alone rights.

Unless, of course, we refer to the Koalicioni për Familje, which is known for its vehement opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and accumulated 24,000 euros in fines for using discriminatory language against the LGBTQ+ community during the recent electoral campaign, in which it failed to secure a single Assembly seat. The fines, imposed by the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel (ECAP), followed complaints filed by two LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, CEL Kosova and Dylberizm. The ECAP ruled that the party’s rhetoric violated the Law on General Elections. 

LGBTQ+ rights measure a democracy  

The push for equal rights resonates strongly because if we don’t advocate for ourselves, who will? Berisha, publicly known as part of the Mustafa & Qerkica duo, and a pioneering LGBTQ+ rights activist who amid everything else happening in the 1990s, turned his house into a shelter for LGBTQ+ people, sees Kurti’s commitment to LGBTQ+ rights as insufficient.

“Kurti’s presence at a [Pride] parade doesn’t change a thing,” he said. “Equality isn’t achieved through slogans or symbolism — he must do more in this fight. Until we see real legal reforms and protections, we continue to be second-class citizens in our own country.”

Lawmakers’ hostility to recognizing LGBTQ+ rights reflects deliberate neglect. In Kurti’s case, it is also part of an unwillingness to stand up to members of his own party who have stalled progress. The Kosovo Assembly’s decision to appoint Duda Balje from the Social Democratic Union, a Bosniak party, and Labinotë Demi-Murtezi from VV, to key oversight roles as human rights commissioners, despite their well-documented opposition to equal rights, reinforces a norm of exclusion and discrimination. 

Such deeply-rooted opposition, along with a lack of political mettle among those who might stamp it out, matters. Kosovo scores a below-average 47 out of 100 on Equaldex’s LGBT Equality Index, which evaluates legal protections and public attitudes. Despite constitutional guarantees of equality before the law, in Article 24, and non-discrimination, in Article 22, LGBTQ+ Kosovars remain marginalized. Although same-sex marriage has not been explicitly addressed, constitutional protections for privacy and family life in Article 36 offer a legal basis for acknowledging diverse family structures. 

Berisha sees politicians’ resistance to equal rights as an impediment to democratic progress. “Claiming to be a democracy won’t open any doors if we don’t live up to the title,” he said. Democracy is “built on shared values — rule of law, equal rights, freedom of the press. For Kosovo, meeting these standards isn’t optional; it’s essential if we’re serious about upholding the democratic values.” Kurti’s government, like those before it, has failed on this front — particularly on LGBTQ+ rights, a key measure of democracy in any country. 

The fight for equality brings systemic failures into focus and is inextricably tied to broader issues like economic despair and political volatility, reflecting systemic failures that continue to impede progress. High unemployment and reliance on remittances have incentivized emigration as employment opportunities offer little incentive to stay. Alongside this, political turmoil has become a tiresome routine, with fractured coalitions and leadership rivalries that stymie governance. 

As corruption and failed accountability for political missteps has pervaded, LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized groups have borne the brunt. “Kosovo’s political system rewards loyalty and patronage over merit and progress. It’s a system built on cronyism that forsakes marginalized communities like ours,” said Liki, a filmmaker, screenwriter and outspoken lesbian advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.

In 2023, Freedom House — a Washington D.C.-based research organization that monitors democracy, political freedom and human rights around the world — classified Kosovo as “Partly Free,” with a Global Freedom Score of 60 out of 100 that places it in the lower half of the global rankings. This score highlights concerns about governance, freedom of expression and fundamental rights. 

Beyond a reluctance to champion equal rights and freedom for all, Kurti’s tenure has been marked by disregard for media criticism and a push to assert control over northern Kosovo. Kosovo dropped 19 spots in the 2024 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, and Kurti sparked a series of confrontations with international partners, drawing Kosovo back into the political crisis at the heart of the region’s ongoing instability. 

Kurti’s persistent crisis-driven governance — fueling tensions with Kosovo Serbs ahead of the elections, thwarting local governments not controlled by his party, EU sanctions and conflict with public sector workers — harms the country. Kosovo’s increasingly strained relationship with key international allies threatens to cost Kosovo years of stability, reinforcing its external image as a country eternally embroiled in crisis. These are the predictable outcomes of a nationalist leader molded by years of divisive politics.

Economic mismanagement 

Kosovo’s socio-economic inequalities are compounded by a political elite detached from ordinary citizens’ daily struggles. While Kurti touted achievements like increasing the minimum wage from 170 to 350 euros monthly — shortly before the 2025 elections, conveniently — these changes barely scratch the surface of the glaring gap between Kosovo’s promises of progress and its gridlocked reality. In a country where the basic pension is 120 euros, the cost of basic necessities, comparable to countries elsewhere in Europe with much higher average incomes, continues to push the limits of affordability.

The growing disconnect between the privileged political class and the average citizen raises the question: do figures like Kurti or Finance Minister Hekuran Murati comprehend ordinary Kosovars’ daily hardships? Or have they become so removed from life’s everyday realities that they no longer understand the suffering unfolding in struggling households fighting to get by?

Brianka and Queen Maggy, two prominent drag queens and respected performers within Kosovo’s LGBTQ+ community, are among those sounding their frustration with the government’s economic policies. 

“Why is it that, election after election, regardless of who’s in charge, citizens still fail to benefit from economic growth?” Queen Maggy asked, her voice filled with exasperation. Brianka echoed these sentiments, pointing to Kosovo’s position as one of Europe’s poorest countries, with wages and GDP per capita trailing far behind counterparts. 

The economic data “paint[s] a picture clearer than a drag queen’s shade of lipstick!” Queen Maggy said, quickly adding, “Honestly, the 2023 minimum wage wouldn’t have afforded me the luxury of purchasing false eyelashes — a drag queen essential!” Her lighthearted remark reflects a serious reality: Kosovo’s economic divide reflects not just financial inequality but a more profound failure of governance, which perpetuates institutionalized injustices.

These grievances are part of a deeper frustration with political leadership’s failure to address critical issues. “It’s time to make Kosovo a hotspot for global investors,” said Queen Maggy. She urged Kurti to focus on pressing concerns — job creation and economic development, judicial integrity, rule of law and poverty, equality and social welfare — rather than the endless cycle of political turmoil. “Create an environment that screams, ‘Come invest here; it’s safer than a drag queen in a sequin gown!’”

Brianka shared similar frustrations, criticizing the government for failing to attract international investment and improve the country’s appeal, failures she equated with the troubling lack of progress on equal rights. “To understand how ignorant these politicians are, the blocking of equal rights is merely the tip of the iceberg,” Brianka said. 

She lamented the chaos of Prishtina, pointing to stray dogs roaming the streets, cars blocking sidewalks and pedestrians forced to walk in the middle of the street as if they were models on a Milan runway. “And the trash?” she asked, “It’s everywhere!” More than anything, this disregard for both social progress and urban management exposes significant governance deficiencies.

Fighting incompetence, not equality 

Equal rights have been little more than an afterthought, dismissed by a political class that regards us as peripheral, enveloped in a web of settled grievances and indifference. This refusal to act is not new; it is a firmly established unwillingness to address the injustices faced by a marginalized community.

The urgency for meaningful change has never been more apparent. Such change depends on an uncharted collaboration between leaders and citizens — a delicate balancing act required to foster lasting transformation. For Berisha and many other Kosovars, this prospect still feels distant.

Nonetheless, Berisha is a courageous voice, urging Kosovo’s leaders to reconsider their opposition to equal rights — an essential pillar of democracy — and to confront the systemic issues that continue to thwart progress. “Until those in power recognize the gravity of the situation and change course, Kosovo’s aspirations for a stable, prosperous future will stay a distant dream,” he said.

Should the government again fail to pass a civil code, one that includes same-sex unions, the courts could become a pivotal avenue for enshrining equality as a cornerstone of democracy and delivering long-overdue justice. For Kosovo’s LGBTQ+ community, an emerging body of jurisprudence presents a glimmer of hope — a path to contest institutionalized discrimination and sidestep the inertia of legislative stalemate.

In 2019, a landmark court victory on sex identification changes demonstrated that Kosovo’s laws can be challenged in the name of LGBTQ+ rights, and plaintiffs can win. If lawmakers don’t act, legal action may be pursued once again, this time on same-sex unions and marriage equality.

In the next mandate, regardless of which parties it consists of, Kosovo has an opportunity to break free from the stagnation, corruption, inefficiency and disruption that has defined its politics for the last many years. Meaningful progress requires a concerted effort to embrace equality and human rights for all. 

Feature image: Majlinda Hoxha / K2.0.

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