“The institutional deadlock in numbers”
How much have MPs of the 9th legislature worked and spent?
Eight months after the February 9 elections, Kosovo finds itself once again on the verge of new elections. On November 19, the second nominee from the winning party, Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (VV), Glauk Konjufca, failed to secure the required 61 votes to form a government. As a result, the next day, Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, dissolved the Assembly and announced extraordinary elections for December 28.
What began as a routine process in April with the constitution of the Assembly turned into a prolonged political crisis: endless sessions for constituting the Assembly, rulings from the Constitutional Court, failure to build coalitions and the absence of a parliamentary majority. Together, these developments have paralysed the functionality of the country’s institutions.
The cost of this deadlock is measurable: millions of euros spent on elections, hundreds of thousands of euros in MPs’ salaries without a single day of work, hundreds of millions of euros in frozen funds from the European Union and the World Bank, and dozens of stalled draft laws.
In the February 9 elections, VV won 42.3% of the vote, PDK 20.9%, LDK 18.27%, AAK 7.06% and Nisma Social Demokratike, Lista Srpska together 4.26%.
This is the balance sheet of a deadlock made clearest by the numbers that have defined this eight-month period.
60
sessions to constitute the Assembly
From April 15, when the first constitutive session of the Kosovo Assembly was held, until October 10, when the Assembly was finally constituted, a total of 60 sessions took place. The shortest session lasted 1 minute, and the longest 106 minutes. Most sessions were very brief, typically only 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the pace of recounting votes for, against, and abstentions.
Part of these sessions was spent attempting to approve the report of the Commission for Verification of Quorum and Mandates (KVKM), a step that should have been purely technical.
Around 50 other sessions followed the same script: VV proposed former Minister of Justice Albulena Haxhiu for Speaker of the Assembly, while PDK, LDK, AAK, Nisma Social Demokratike and Lista Srpska voted against or abstained.
Following a Constitutional Court ruling that initiated a break in sessions, VV attempted again in August to nominate Haxhiu, who once more failed to secure the necessary votes. From April 15 to August 20, this same scenario was repeated with Haxhiu as VV’s candidate for Speaker.
Because the Constitutional Court decision limited the proposal of candidates to only three attempts, VV moved on to several other candidates until, on August 26, Dimal Basha secured the votes with PDK’s support, even though PDK had not supported him in the first attempt.
Just when it seemed the deadlock had finally been resolved and the rest would be procedural, another obstacle emerged: the election of the Deputy Speaker from the non-majority Serb group.
The Albanian parties agreed on only one thing: the Deputy Speaker should not come from Lista Srpska. For VV, the candidate should be Nenad Rasić; the other parties thought it should be no one. Basha changed the protocol for the election of the Deputy Speaker, which angered Lista Srpska and led them to file a complaint at the Constitutional Court.
From August 26 to October 10, the Assembly resembled a lottery, drawing names of Serb MPs who would subsequently not secure the necessary votes, leading to a second and third name being drawn, and still no votes, until Rasić finally secured support from LDK MPs, and the Assembly was constituted on October 10. This opened the way for President Vjosa Osmani to formally nominate VV to present its cabinet for a vote.
1
coalition invitation
The eight-month institutional deadlock was marked by a complete reluctance to reach any coalition agreement between VV and the other major parties. Only once, on May 5, did Albin Kurti send an invitation to LDK leader Lumir Abdixhiku, proposing a political agreement that could unblock the Assembly and enable the formation of a new government.
Abdixhiku rejected the invitation, stating that “no matter how much I and LDK are not guided by spite; no matter how much we believe in dialogue, cooperation, and human and political communication; such a meeting — even a consultative one — would be a fatal crossing of political and human dignity.”
He referred to Kurti’s remarks on election night, when, during celebrations, he used derogatory language and labelled the former opposition as “hajvana” (animals). LDK had previously been in coalition with VV in 2019, in a government that lasted only 51 days.
Away from public view, there were also discussions, particularly with NISMA, which had won three seats. However, these talks did not progress: NISMA’s leader demanded the position of parliamentary speaker, a request Kurti refused. Following this, cooperation efforts faded, and political communication ceased entirely.
2
nominees to form the government
The first VV nominee for Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, failed to secure 61 votes in the October 26 session to form a government. With only 56 votes in favor, his proposed cabinet included familiar names in the same positions: Hekuran Murati at Finance and Economy, Xhelal Sveçla at Internal Affairs and Ejup Maqedonci at Defense.
Some former ministers were reassigned to new positions, such as Donika Gërvalla, who was proposed as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, and Glauk Konjufca, who was proposed as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora.
Several figures from the previous government were absent entirely from the proposed cabinet, including Albulena Haxhiu, Arbërie Nagavci and Rozeta Hajdari.
The second nominee, Glauk Konjufca, who also failed to secure the 61 required votes on November 19, proposed a nearly identical cabinet. The key change was that Albin Kurti now appeared as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.
1.7
million euros in MP salaries
According to a Radio Free Europe calculation, from the first session on April 15 until October 26, MPs spent a total of 750 minutes working — that is 12.5 hours, or roughly one and a half working days.
Since taking office, the 105 MPs of the Kosovo Assembly have received a basic monthly salary of 1,914 euros, in addition to seniority benefits. Over the course of eight months, the assembly’s individual MP earnings range from around 15,312 euros to 17,700 euros for those with higher supplements.
According to Assembly data, from April 15 to October 30, the salaries of MPs reached 1.371 million euros. By the end of November, the total cost of salaries had reached around 1.6–1.7 million euros, excluding committee supplements, travel and other benefits. For example, members of parliament spent 15,000 euros on phone top-ups from May to November.
Over the course of eight months, all these salaries were paid across the 63 sessions, during which no draft law was approved, and no agreement was signed. MPs simply repeated their positions: VV and non-Serb minority representatives mostly voted in favor, while LDK, PDK, AAK, Nisma and Lista Srpska nearly always voted against or abstained.
This eight-month engagement also included brief media statements before and after sessions, as well as social media posts, where many of their repetitive arguments were had.
These figures do not include the 15 MPs who concurrently hold executive positions in government and, in a legally and constitutionally questionable arrangement, received ministerial salaries. What is certain is that none were left without an income.
4
trips to the Constitutional Court
During this deadlock, the Constitutional Court became a key institution after the Assembly, as repeated blockages often arose from violations of the Rules of Procedure. The process repeatedly entered legally uncharted territory, where even MPs themselves were unsure of the next step.
The Assembly and the President referred four cases to the Court.
The first, on May 1, occurred when MPs from PDK and AAK contested Avni Dehari’s proposal, who chaired the constitutive session, to create a commission for a secret ballot for the Speaker. According to VV, a secret ballot would have secured the missing votes for Albulena Haxhiu. On June 26, the Court ruled that the constitutive session must be completed within 30 days and must follow precisely the model of the first session: quorum and mandate verification, swearing-in of MPs, and sequential election of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers.
Nevertheless, Dehari continued insisting on the secret ballot, interrupting the session multiple times. This led to the second request to the Court on July 3, when PDK and AAK sought clarification on the process for proposing commission members, putting the procedure to a vote, and the interruptions that had left the process in limbo.
On August 8, the Court issued another ruling stating that the Speaker must be elected by an open vote within 30 days and that the same candidate may be submitted no more than three times. This effectively limited VV’s repeated proposals of the same candidate.
Meanwhile, on July 22, President Vjosa Osmani sought further clarification from the Court, this time inquiring about the consequences if the Assembly failed to constitute itself within the Court-mandated deadline. But on August 5, she withdrew the request, citing the appointment of Serbian judge Radomir Llaban as rapporteur of the case.
In September, Lista Srpska filed a new complaint regarding the voting procedure for Deputy Speakers from non-majority communities, which marked the final stages of the assembly’s constitution. Both the President’s request and Lista Srpska’s complaint remain pending before the Court.
111
unprocessed draft laws
At the last regular meeting of the Government, on January 31, 2025, the Legislative Program for 2025–2027 was approved. The program foresees 111 draft laws to be processed by the Government and the Assembly, with 95 planned to be approved by the end of 2025 and 42 by the end of July that year.
Among them is the draft law amending and supplementing the Law on Labour, intended to improve workers’ rights and better regulate employment relations. This law has not been updated since 2010, and although it has been part of the legislative agenda since 2023, it was not enacted under the last VV government.
Another priority is the amendment of the Law on Safety and Health at Work, which is essential for improving conditions in high-risk sectors, particularly construction. The consequences of failing to approve and implement this legal framework are clear: in 2025 alone, 10 construction workers lost their lives on the job. On July 21, three more construction workers died at their workplace.
170
million euros lost from the EU and World Bank
Under the EU’s punitive measures, Kosovo has full access to the Growth Plan, a six-billion-euro package for Western Balkan countries for 2024–2027, provided each state approves its Reform Agenda. Kosovo approved its agenda in October 2024, positioning it as a strategic roadmap for governance, infrastructure, economic diversification, energy, labor markets, rule of law, social inclusion and digitalization. Implementing the agenda, which is divided into five pillars, is estimated to cost over 882 million euros.
All other Western Balkan countries have already received the first tranche of the fund. Kosovo, lacking a functional Assembly and with the Growth Plan still unratified, is the only country without access to these funds. The deadline for ratification is December 2025. Failure to ratify risks delaying 7% of the total package value of 880 million euros, roughly 61 million euros.
In addition to EU funds, Kosovo also has significant World Bank agreements blocked: 90 million euros in direct budget support and two other agreements on education and health worth 20 million euros. Without parliamentary ratification, none of these funds can take effect.
Their suspension risks slowing structural reforms, economic development, improvements in public services and Kosovo’s integration into the EU common market.
21.9
million euros for elections
The organization of the general elections in February cost Kosovo’s budget 7.9 million euros. During the campaign alone, 28 political entities spent nearly four million euros. Of this amount, the five largest parties spent 3.6 million euros. In total, around 11.9 million euros were spent on the February elections.
The extraordinary elections of December 28 come just one month after the country held local elections, which cost around 10 million euros. Organizing two major electoral processes within such a short period has imposed a burden of over 21 million euros on Kosovo’s budget, not including the upcoming December 28 elections, at a time when the institution has failed to form a functional government.
Feature image: Ferdi Limani / K2.0
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- This story was originally written in Albanian.