When Përparim Rama entered the political scene in Kosovo during the 2021 local elections, many considered him a breath of fresh air for the governance of Prishtina. This was because he did not come from party structures, but it was also due to his professional background as an architect with international experience. Running as a candidate for the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), Rama promised to transform Prishtina into a practical, green and experience-driven city.

Rama has had a long career in the United Kingdom, where he moved as a teenager and built his reputation in the fields of interior design and architecture. He first became known in Kosovo in 2012 with his participation at the Venice Architecture Biennale and with the award-winning design of the Hamam Jazz Bar in Prishtina.

Rama’s name appeared more prominently in local headlines in 2019 and 2020, this time due to controversy. His business had designed, and he was a co-investor in, a residential complex of 17 villas on the shores of Lake Badovci, one of Prishtina’s main sources of drinking water. Although the municipality, then led by Shpend Ahmeti of the Vetëvendosje (VV), approved the plans, the project provoked strong reactions from citizens and environmental activists, who warned that the construction could endanger the capital’s water supply. The project was eventually canceled by the current LDK leader, Lumir Abdixhiku, who at the time served as Minister of Infrastructure in Kurti’s first government in 2019.

During the 2021 local election campaign, however, Rama managed to craft an image as a visionary, with promises to reshape the capital, whoch had long suffered from urban chaos: heavy traffic, dysfunctional public transport and a lack of urban planning that left the city suffocated by a construction boom.

Rama’s election program was built on three pillars: Practical Prishtina, Green Prishtina and Prishtina of Experiences. It included over 200 promises with concrete infrastructural, cultural and administrative plans. According to his program, fulfilling these promises would free up public spaces and create more functional connections between neighborhoods and the city center. The capital would become more accessible, greener and more functional for pedestrians, public transport users and the community at large. The project renderings that embodied these promises looked as if they had been crafted by the very hands of his architectural collaborators, who appeared to know exactly what was needed. They inspired hope among the people of Prishtina.

But four years later, only a small part of Rama’s electoral vision for the capital has been realized.

According to the GAP Institute, which monitors the fulfillment of campaign promises, in four years the local government in Prishtina has fully implemented 73 out of 204 promises, 37 are partially fulfilled, 37 have been initiated, while 59 have not begun.

Rama is now seeking a new four-year mandate in the local elections scheduled for October 12. In this context, K2.0 evaluates Rama’s governance over the past four years, based on the commitments and promises outlined in the three Ps of his 2021 campaign.

Practical Prishtina

Practical Prishtina aimed at changes centered on what was called the “Redefinition of the city center.” Rama envisioned the center of Prishtina as encompassing the entire area within the city’s inner ring. According to his program, this new center would reshape the hierarchy of traffic movement: pedestrians would come first, followed by public and alternative transportation, while cars would be placed last. Practical Prishtina also included investments in education, health and city security.

The biggest step toward this project came in the second year of his mandate, at the end of 2023, when the Municipality of Prishtina decided to close George Bush Street, near the Saint Mother Teresa Cathedral. However, this move also initiated a saga that turned Rama into the target of criticism —  it remains the most ambitious project he pursued during his four-year term.

The closure of the road happened step by step. Initially, it was closed to cars but remained open for buses and taxis. Later, it was also closed to those vehicles in order to make room for festive cottages during the winter holiday season. In March 2024, a single lane was reopened to allow access from the Underground Parking at the Faculty of Philology campus. At no stage of this process, however, were measures taken to assess the impact that the road’s closure was having.

The proposal to close George Bush Street was based on the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for Prishtina, published in 2019. Within its framework of expanding pedestrian zones and modifying several roads, the plan also envisioned closing George Bush Street. According to the plan, however, this action should not have begun before 2026. The closure was to be preceded by the development of the city’s outer and inner rings, which would help ease traffic flow. In 2022, Rama’s administration carried out several traffic tests by experimenting with the inner ring, allowing cars to circulate in one direction. Despite these tests, the inner ring was never put into operation. According to the municipality, it could not be functional without the construction of two underpasses for cars — one near the Cathedral and the other in the old part of the city. Although those underpasses were never built, the road was still closed.

Calling the traffic jams “an opportunity to relax, listen to music and, if you can, get out of your car to walk,” Rama and his team set out to transform George Bush Street into a pedestrian plaza and commercial hub. The project was conceived by the “City Architect,” a campaign team that had promised to redesign the capital. The controversial €12 million project, planned over three years, also envisioned turning the stretch of street from the Cathedral to the Grand Hotel into a promenade, while the section near the Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK) was to include a series of stairways connecting the promenade to commercial facilities.

However, Rama’s ambitious plan quickly encountered obstacles. One section of George Bush Street contains buildings protected by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports (MCYS), including the RTK building and the Pjetër Bogdani National Library. In ignoring the Law on Cultural Heritage, the intention was to begin construction between these monuments and the protected area of the Historic Center of Prishtina.

The municipality, however, had not followed the necessary procedures to obtain permission from the National Institute for the Protection of Monuments (NIPM) for this project, nor had it clarified the timeframe or method of construction in such a protected area. A similar approach had been taken in other projects as well, such as the underpass works on Agim Ramadani Street near the old part of the city and the overpass behind the Palace of Sports and Youth — a project intended to connect the Arbëria neighborhood with the city center, but was halted for procedural reasons.

Despite this, the municipality announced a tender for the start of works on George Bush Street, valued at €18.4 million. On March 10, 2025, construction began, but the very next day, the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate of the MCYS halted the works. A day later, the dispute over who was in the right — the municipality or the inspectors — was taken to court. Caught between laws and procedures, the municipality eventually submitted a formal request to the NIPM for approval of the project. However, the request was rejected, as the NIPM argued that the project would violate the integrity of five protected monuments located in the area.

In the end, the Court of Appeal rejected the municipality’s request to suspend the decision of the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate, which halted the works on George Bush Street. This clash carried both political and legal overtones. Rama accused the government and the former Minister of Culture, Hajrullah Çeku — VV’s candidate for Prishtina in the October 12 elections — of deliberately obstructing the works. Çeku, however, argued that they were acting in accordance with the law and sought to distance themselves from the political controversy.

In addition to the issues with the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate, Rama also faced problems with the architects who had won the tender for the street’s design services. A consortium consisting of Astrit Nixha and Arbër Shita, representing the companies ANARCH and ARDI Ç, took the municipality to court to claim payment for their services. The municipality had failed to approve the 2025 budget on time, and with the Assembly of Kosovo not functioning to amend the capital’s budget, the municipality was left with only one-twelfth of the annual budget each month. Consequently, it was unable to pay contractors for their services.

Apart from the saga of George Bush Street, the hierarchy of movement in the capital has seen little tangible change.

Pedestrian mobility remains a daily challenge, as most sidewalks are still occupied by cars. Meanwhile, parking spaces are scarce, despite this being one of the main promises for alleviating traffic congestion. The parking lots envisioned at the city’s entrances under the Park & Ride concept — intended for commuters to leave their cars and then use public transport — have largely not been realized. Apart from a parking lot built in Kodra e Trimave to support the Park & Ride system, no other concrete measures have been taken.

A more concrete step towards solving the parking problem was taken a month before the elections, when Rama signed an agreement with the shopping centers Prishtina Mall on the Lipjan side and with ETC on the Fushë Kosovës side, allowing citizens to use their parking lots as public parking.

In addition, the construction of parking lots was also planned in various corners of the downtown area, from which access to the main squares of the city would take approximately seven minutes from leaving the car. These parking lots, which were not built, were to be managed by the local public enterprise, Prishtina Parking. In addition to managing parking lots on the streets, the enterprise aimed to secure municipal revenues and modernize payments through digital platforms.

The enterprise operated by setting fees, imposing fines, blocking or confiscating vehicles for non-payment of parking spaces, and limiting access according to certain payment methods. However, in May 2025, the Supreme Court, following a request from the Municipality to the court, annulled the main provisions of the regulation that gave the company these powers, assessing that they violated constitutional rights. With the removal of the right to block or confiscate vehicles, revenues fell significantly and the company’s activity was practically paralyzed. However, even without the Supreme Court’s decision, Prishtina Parking was unable to prohibit parking vehicles on sidewalks designated for pedestrians. In September, Prishtina Parking resumed operations, based on a new regulation that allowed the City Inspectorate to impose fines, and vehicles would no longer be blocked.

Part of Practical Prishtina was also the promise of a safer capital. However, the implementation of supporting infrastructure, such as public lighting, was delayed. Since the beginning of June 2025, Rruga B and Rruga C, two of the most frequented streets in the capital, had been without lighting until less than two weeks before the elections, when they were finally switched on in a ceremonial event. More broadly, the lack of proper lighting remains a problem in other neighborhoods across the city.

In addition, the issue of stray dogs in the capital has long been a social and institutional challenge, with successive governments promising sustainable solutions. In recent years, the municipality has taken steps to build a new shelter for the treatment of stray dogs — a project that was also a promise made by Rama’s predecessor, Shpend Ahmeti.

The Stray Dog Treatment Center was established to treat stray dogs and prepare them for adoption under a municipal program that subsidized adopters with 50 euros per month. However, the adoption process soon faced serious challenges. Animal rights associations warned that the subsidy risked creating illegal shelters, as individuals might adopt multiple dogs without the capacity to care for them.

Despite these warnings, the municipality continued financing the program. The concerns proved justified when two unlicensed shelters emerged, where dogs were kept in poor conditions. The Food and Veterinary Agency (FVA) found that these facilities were operating outside legal regulations and ordered their closure. Public funds had therefore been misallocated to shelters that failed to meet even the minimum legal standards. The FVA documented severe shortcomings, including lack of hygiene, unsafe drinking water, dogs exposed to extreme heat, and missing veterinary records.

Following the closures, stray dogs quickly reappeared in the city center, underscoring the municipality’s failure to provide a sustainable, long-term strategy.

Investments in education were also part of Practical Prishtina. Unlike other sectors, the education sector in the municipality of Prishtina has experienced a noticeably faster pace of development over the past four years. Each director who has led the education department has implemented at least some measures that have brought tangible improvements.

The first director, Besianë Musmurati from the PDK, initiated a school reform that increased security, introduced digital coding as a subject, provided student lockers and began the construction of new schools. After the collapse of the coalition with the PDK, the Directorate of Education was handed to Jehonë Lushaku-Sadriu from the LDK, who implemented full-day education in five schools in the capital. This reform was welcomed by residents, as sending children to private day-care centers had imposed additional financial costs.

Following Lushaku, who resigned as director after being elected as a deputy in the central-level parliamentary elections — and who had highlighted the success of full-day education in Prishtina during her campaign — Samir Shahini, previously director of education in Fushë Kosovë, took over the position in the capital. One of the youngest directors, Shahini, within a year extended full-day teaching to seven additional schools, five of which were in villages, fulfilling another of Rama’s 2021 promises for equal educational development in both urban and rural areas of the capital. In addition to these achievements, the Hospitality and Tourism High School was opened in Prishtina.

Clean Prishtina

Clean Prishtina focused on green mobility infrastructure, aiming to improve air quality by prioritizing public transport, reducing traffic in the city center, creating green pathways and encouraging the use of electric cars, among other measures.

However, the functionalization and expansion of public transport stalled. For four years, the purchase of 30 new buses, including six electric ones, was repeatedly promised, but this commitment was not fulfilled. Meanwhile, construction of new bus stations continued throughout the capital, yet none were completed over the four-year period. In a controversial move, the Prishtina government decided to test an unusual approach at the stations. The dedicated bus lanes near the stations, previously separated from car traffic, were removed. Buses now stop in regular traffic lanes, causing congestion. According to the municipality, this measure was intended to provoke “irritation” among drivers while navigating the city.

To transform the urban transport network — which included new buses, additional lines, and more consistent schedules — Rama chose to present a new plan for urban transport just three weeks before the elections, exempting education workers, municipal employees, and all pupils and students from paying fares. According to the municipality, the public transport network has now been expanded to include 30 new lines and 172 modern buses. Some of the main lines were promised to run at seven-minute intervals.

With slow public transportation, no initiatives for the use of electric vehicles and few trees planted, the Municipality has not managed to reduce air pollution in the capital. Every winter, Prishtina ranks among the cities with the most polluted air in the world, with levels that frequently exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Although the primary sources of pollution remain the Kosova A and Kosova B power plants, cars are the second-largest contributor. The promises were ambitious: infrastructure for electric vehicles was intended to be functional across all neighborhoods, and even in new buildings, parking lots and dedicated charging stations were planned.

The creation of parking lots at the entrances to the capital was linked to the idea of expanding public transport and promoting mobility on foot, by bus, or by bicycle. The 2021 campaign emphasized prioritizing pedestrians and public transport, with cars coming last. To this end, 100 public bicycles have been deployed, with 15 stations and a corresponding app for rentals.

Pollution was not limited to the air. At the beginning of 2024, and again in 2025, Prishtina faced a major waste crisis. Overflowing containers, strong odors and health risks identified by the National Institute of Public Health of Kosovo (NIPHK) turned neighborhoods across the city into what looked like vast garbage dumps. For citizens, this was no longer just an aesthetic issue that spoiled the image of the capital, but a serious public health concern.

The main cause was a financial dispute between the municipality and the public enterprise Pastrimi, to which the municipality owed more than 2.7 million euros, paralyzing the company’s operations. Without payment and without dialogue, cleaning services were gradually suspended. Instead of seeking a solution, the municipality accused the enterprise of politically acting out, as it was led by figures close to the PDK, with whom the ruling party had broken its coalition.

In December 2024, another problem was added to the debt owed to the company: the Municipal Assembly of Prishtina amended the Regulation on Waste Management, initiated by the PDK and supported by PDK and AKR assembly members. This amendment required the company Pastrimi itself to collect payments from citizens, and it began issuing invoices in January 2025. However, this amendment was opposed by the Municipality of Prishtina, which in February suspended the implementation of the regulation and took Pastrimi to the Supreme Court, requesting its complete annulment. The Municipality argued that the regulation also conflicted with the Law on Competition, as it denied other operators the right to participate. According to the municipality, the regulation undermined their plan to clean the city by dividing it into five zones, including rural areas, where cleaning services would be provided by six private companies, one of which was Pastrimi. But this plan was rejected by the public company.

The changes to the billing regulation caused confusion among citizens, who were unsure whether to pay their garbage bills to the municipality or to Pastrimi. After a legal battle, the right was returned to Pastrimi, which resumed work, and bills are now paid directly to this company, which is responsible for maintaining the city’s cleanliness.

But the image of a polluted Prishtina during those days will not fade easily. The greatest irony was that one of the central pillars of Rama’s 2021 campaign was Clean Prishtina. Even the promises made under the Smart Prishtina banner envisioned using smart technology to identify excessive waste accumulation and improve its management.

Prishtina of Experiences

Prishtina of Experiences focused on enriching the city’s cultural life, spanning sports, youth, art, culture and gastronomy.

Specific promises included infrastructure investments that would place culture at the heart of public life. These plans envisioned a new Art Gallery, a Prishtina Symphony Orchestra, a new Theater and a modern Center for Cultural Events. The program also highlighted the renovation of Kino Armata, the opening of a center for urban culture and a creative laboratory for children and youth — initiatives intended to educate future generations through culture and creativity.

The orchestra, formed as an extended chamber ensemble, was launched on June 23, 2025, and held its first concert that same evening. Its aim is to develop artistic music in the capital. However, the promised capital theater was never built, the modern center for cultural events was not realized and the renovation of Kino Armata never began.

One issue that highlights the clash between Rama’s government and part of the art scene is the future of the Center for Narrative Practice (CNP), formerly the “Hivzi Sylejmani” library.

After a period of closure, the library reopened with the arrival of the nomadic biennial Manifesta 14 Prishtina in 2022. In addition to staging a 100-day artistic and cultural program, the biennial invested 300,000 euros to transform the library space into the CNP. Conceived as an interdisciplinary cultural institution, the CNP became home to the biennial’s educational program, hosting workshops, literary events and musical performances. It was also intended to be the main legacy that Manifesta would leave behind in Prishtina.

At the end of January 2024, the CNP announced its temporary closure, mainly owing to financial difficulties. The press release stated that the CNP would reopen in the spring; however, this did not occur. In May 2024, the Directorate of Culture of the Municipality of Prishtina began using some of the CNP’s spaces as offices. This move sparked controversy among independent cultural workers, artists, cultural organizations and civil society groups. In August 2025, the Municipality of Prishtina signed an agreement with PART – Workers in Art, for the temporary management of the space, ensuring that it remained accessible to artists, while a joint commission was tasked with reviewing requests in a fair and equal manner for all interested parties.

At the heart of the controversy has also been the municipality’s approach to public spaces. The existing law on the allocation of municipal property reduces these assets to financial instruments, favoring businesses through public auctions and long-term contracts of up to 99 years, while civil society organizations are limited to short-term contracts of up to 15 years. This has created systematic insecurity for community spaces such as Termokiss and Kino Armata, which, instead of focusing on their cultural and social missions, have been forced to operate on unstable legal and political ground. Although the law allows mayors to negotiate directly for projects of public interest, Rama’s government has not utilized this mechanism to protect community spaces, instead remaining a passive administrator of a system deliberately designed to leave them insecure.

Rama also promised to revitalize neighborhood centers through local cultural events, as well as by allocating a special budget for community art projects. In this regard, there have been some positive steps, such as renovating neighborhood shelter tunnels into cultural centers. The municipality renovated the “Kurrizi” tunnel, which, in addition to accommodating the circulation of cars and bicycles, is also intended for cultural performances and exhibitions.

The list of unfulfilled promises, however, is long, especially in the field of sports. The construction of physical education halls in schools with over 100 students, the introduction of physical education programs for preschool children, the construction of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, the expansion of the Fadil Vokrri Stadium by eight thousand additional seats, the renovation of the large hall of the Youth Palace and the construction of three other 300-seat gyms on the outskirts of the city all remain unrealized.

Instead of being renovated as a basic hall for handball and other indoor sports, the large hall of the Youth Palace was converted as the stage for the RTK Song Festival, completely covered with curtains that hid the remains of fire damage the building suffered after the war. Today, this hall continues to be used primarily as a parking lot, except on the days it is used by the festival.

In the field of sports, a more fruitful cooperation between the municipality and the MCYS marked one of the successes of Rama’s mandate: the capital won the right to host the Mediterranean Games, Prishtina 2030. Due to limited capacities, the games will not be held only in Prishtina but will also be spread across other cities, including Durrës, for water sports. This will be the largest sporting event ever organized in Kosovo and based on previous editions in countries such as Algeria, where over 3,200 athletes participated, it is expected to bring thousands of athletes. Investments in sports infrastructure for these games amount to over 250 million euros.

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Rama’s ambitious plan to transform Prishtina into a practical, clean city with sufficient space for urban experiences has faced serious obstacles over the years. Although positive steps have been taken in some sectors, the capital’s chronic problems remain unresolved – including traffic chaos, a lack of pedestrian sidewalks, poor waste management and insufficient investment in infrastructure to enrich cultural life in the city.

Feature image: Atdhe Mulla / K2.0

Përparim Rama is aiming for another four-year term as mayor of Prishtina in the local elections to be held on October 12. In this context, K2.0 evaluates Rama’s governance over the past four years, based on the commitments and promises made during his 2021 campaign.

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