Only “against all”: How Kurti lost allies and failed to make the government

“Vetevendosje is the community of people who refuse to submit...” So this political party begins describing the history of its activity in Kosovo.

Founded in 2005, initially as an independent anti-reform movement, the Vetevendosje (LVV) movement, led by Albin Kurtin, entered the Kosovo Assembly after the 2010 parliamentary elections.

Nine years later, parliamentary elections emerged as the first party, and secured 29 seats in the Assembly.

LVV leader Kurti, co-government with the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) for 51 days.

Bie Government Kurti

His government fell in March 2020, following a no-confidence motion by the ruling partner.

A year later, LVV secured 58 seats in the Assembly after winning over 50 per cent of the vote in early parliamentary elections. Kurt ruled alone for four years.

“He has built a political narratory type éractor against all”, says Donika Emini, researcher at the Balkan Policy Consultative Group in Europe ( B EPAG, in a conversation with Radio Free Europe (REL).

But, after the February 9th elections of 2025, Kurti, whose party won 48 seats in the Assembly, remained alone in order to form the new government.

He refused the possibility of co-governance with the second party, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK). The PDK had the same attitude.

Meanwhile, the LDK, like the third ruling party in the Parliament, refused co-governance with Kurti, despite his offer. Kurti also rejected the Social Democrat Initiative, which has 3 deputies in the Assembly. Kurt won't secure votes for new government

All parties have suggested they are already awaiting the announcement of early parliamentary elections by Kosovo president.

How was Kurt alone?

During this start-up election campaign, Kurti aimed at the outcome of the 2021 elections, demanding 500,000 votes from citizens.

Naim Rashit, director of the Balkan Policy Research Group, says about REL thought LVV considered the outcome of the 2021 election.

But according to him, the electoral system in Kosovo, and the proportional system of governance, rarely allow for such results.

“in some form, the outcome of the 2021 elections has been an accident. We will hardly have any political subject that will earn 50 percent of the elections”, Rashi says.

He adds that the aim of this result once again disfigured LVV's polarisation of other parties, which it has applied over four years of governance.

Rashit recalls that such a turquoise was characteristic of the clashes between the LDK and the PDK in the first decade of this century.

Who enters Kurti's <x0matomatics” for forming government?

While these two parties have moved towards the normalisation of the narrator, the LVV did the opposite, he says.

The Vetevendosje movement has come late to power and has come with a late narratory, which has caused him trouble. It has developed within, but also in relation to foreign policy”, Rashi claims.

Amy is in the same line of thought. According to her, the LVV, now four years old, has ruled out co-operation with other parties, “aiming to promote polarisation and isolation, instead of building compromise”.

This polarization, according to Emin, was aimed at dividing two blocks into LVV on one side, and other parties on the other.

It [the verdict] against all, where only he is right, and others are wrong, as harmful alternatives to Kosovo. The creation of two jars makes it easier to line up, and intended to govern alone and with free hands”, says Amy.

Not rarely, Kurti, referring to the other two major parties -- the LDK and the PDK -- has used derogatory languages, naming them as “lydydyykyhi's”. In some cases, he has called the opposition “hibride”.

Amy says Kurti, with such vocabulary, offended not only opposition parties but also their electorate.

“On election night [February 9th], still without clarity for the final outcome, Kurti called the opposition” and “havanati”, promoting polarisation and preventing any possible co-operation with Vetevendosje”, Emini points out.

She adds that the former opposition parties were found facing two elections -- joining Kurt for co-governance, which would cause loss of dignity and electorate, or equalise against co-operation, and thus blame Kurti.

According to Emin, Kurti understands that this strategy is not optimistic politically, but it seems intentional, as an estimate of keeping the electorate close to the election.

Kurti, after failing to get the votes for a new government mandate, said he had twice bid the LDK to govern together, so that it “would be cut off from the PDK”. The offer had also made to the Social Democrat Initiative.

“LDK flatly refuses a government led by me. And the Initiative, ultimately, did not want to be in a government that I run”, Kurti said, warning two early parliamentary elections in winter and spring.

PDK and LDK officials stressed that Kurti was seeking, not coalition partner, but submission.

The effect of <x0/25%%s

The polarisation of former opposition parties is not the only reason they do not want co-governance with LVV.

“Vetevendosje Movement will not be able to find a partner to govern in the future, with a naturtur that keeps Kosovo under the measures of the European Union and with a narratory that is attacked by the United States of America or other international factors”, Rashi estimates.

The complex reports with the US began from the time of President Donald Trump's first administration, when the government “Kurti 117x1> collapsed with a no-confidence motion from the partner in co-governance, LDK.

Kurti claimed that the White House's special envoy for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Richard Green, had an impact at the time.

Kupchan: United US frustration with Kurt led to the suspension of Dialogue

My government did not bow down for anything else, but simply because Ambassador Green was in a hurry to sign an agreement with Serbia”, Kurti had declared.

During the administration of President Joe Biden, American officials criticised Kurti for the actions of Kosovo authorities in the country's north, inhabited by Serb majority.

The deployment of new Albanian mayors to municipal facilities in four northern municipalities and the closure of several Serbian institutions that Kosovo considers illegal were called uncoordinated “actions with Western partners, and among the causes of tensions in the north of the country, which, in some cases, during 2017, resulted in clashes with Serb groups with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) peacekeeping mission. KFOR, but also the Kosovo Police.

Similar criticisms came to Kurt from the EU, which since June 2023 has imposed punitive measures on Kosovo.

Late in September 2025, The US suspended Strategic Dialogue with Kosovo because, as it was told, government actions in office, citing increasing tensions and instability.

Former opposition parties have supported ensuring rule of rule and law in northern Kosovo, but have criticised Kurti that the actions in this direction were uncoordinated with foreign partners.

Amy considers that Kurt's isolation, in the international plan, was not expected at the beginning of his government, but deepened over time.

According to her, the situation with EU punitive measures, as well as the suspension of Dialogue with the US, has affected Kurti's position, not only against political parties in the Assembly, but potentially the electorate.

This impact is particularly evident to undecided voters, and to those who are not traditionally linked to any political party but who decide according to the needs and tertiaries on the ground. As a result, the critical measure supporting Kurt earlier has weakened, affecting the results of the last elections”, Emini points out.

She adds that former opposition parties continue to pursue strategic partnerships with the US, with the EU or with other Bible partners, and that they “try to be cautious in relation to Kurt in this regard”.

However, Rashi and Amy appreciate that Kurt's isolation is not attributed solely to his actions. According to them, the EU and the US's incontinent approach to Kosovo is involved in this situation.

These have served the LVV in its electoral turquoise, as arguments for non-conception to international requirements, and have helped provide electoral support.

But Kurti's LVV suffered a decline in the 8 percent electorate within four years.

Will the LVV change?

Despite the decline in the number of LVV voters between two election cycles, a result of early evental elections in Kosovo is hard to predict.

The outcome of the evental elections will also determine the fate of the country's next president, who must be decided by parliamentary majority of 80 votes in two rounds, while in the third round, only the simple majority of 61 votes are required.

In April 2026, Vjosa Osmani completes his term as Kosovo president.

Rashit estimates that LVV will likely again remain the first political subject. But the election of the president of the country requires political consensus, and, therefore, even possible coalitions.

Kurte warns parliamentary elections both in December and spring

In this context, he says the LVV, but other parties, during the upcoming electoral campaign, should have more moderate concerns in relation to competitors, but also regarding local and international policies.

Given the upsurgent practices, the change of sodium from Kurti and his party remains uncertain.

“Do not know whether to change next. But, in the past, we've had political subjects that, at the beginning, the mandate has been quickly taken, and then gradually matured into the operating system”, Rashi says.

He adds that political compromise remains necessary for avoiding situations, where a leader and a party remain lonely in trying to form government.

Amy does not think the LVV has underestimated the importance of political compromise in the Kosovo parliamentary system.

She even believes that this party has a profound experience and knowledge of the political system in Kosovo, being the opposition's most active force for years, carefully examining every law and political process.

“They understand that Kosovo's system requires political compromise to function. However, Vetevendosje has acted deliberately, in a way that feeds the narrator against others. Their strategy has been to weaken the opposition as much as possible and, in parallel, discredit critical voices in civil society and the media, even when criticisms are constructive”, Emini points out.

It does not view this as a strategic LV mistake, but as deliberate strategies, through which it aims to marginalise the old political elite, or to include within it the smaller opposition initiatives that are ready for co-operation.

This strategy, according to her, provides the symbolic opposition LVV. Such approach by Kurti's party, she adds, is well calculated and deliberate to consolidate power and limit real political compromise.

President Osmani has warned that she will meet leaders of political forces to see the eventual possibility of forming a new Kosovo government.

Real questions are off the horizon, and political parties are already preparing to move towards new early elections.