Kurti talks to British left media, says he won't coalition if he gets the majority

Kosovo is holding today parliamentary elections that can mark a crossroads in the country's history, and even establish future territorial integrity in an increasingly hostile world, writes The Guardian.

With the very balanced election outcome, Prime Minister Albin Kurti has held a mass rally in Pristina on Friday evening, with the slogan “Cep on the edge of”.

He celebrated the fact that Kurti succeeded where his predecessors had failed, at the tightening control of the Albanian majority government over a majority Serb area on its northern border.

However, this sense of hard - earned territorial integrity seems increasingly vulnerable.

While Kurt did not mention Donald Trump by name, his presence remained hanging during the rally on Pristina's cold night.

As each capital has observed the words and actions of the US president since his return to the White House, Kosovo has more at stake than most.

The latest Trump administration backed a plan that at one point involved partitioning Kosovo, and one of its officials has already begun attacking Kurt in social media.

Kosovo, with 1.6 million people, declared independence in 2008, nearly a decade after a US-led NATO force helped it prevail in a liberation war.

But 17 years later, it is still not a UN or EU member state as a result of Serbia's refusal, Russia, China and several European states to recognise its independence.

Kosovo's Serb Minority is assessed in various ways as 4 per cent to 8 per cent of the population, and many remain loyal to Belgrade, not Pristina.

Its most important fortress is on the northern side of the town of Mitrovica near the border with Serbia, which was a banned zone for the government until the last two years in which Kurti managed to deploy Kosovo police, close parallel institutions and force the use of the euro on the Serbian dinar.

Critics of Kurt inside and outside Kosovo say these gains in sovereignty have been imposed on the Serb minority, instead of being the result of its gain, leaving the frozen conflict unresolved.

In particular, the prime minister has been reproved by the EU and successive administrations in Washington for his refusal to implement an autonomy package for Serb majority municipalities.

Kurti's party, Vetevendosje, won an absolute majority four years ago in a programme combining social democracy, anti-corruption and patriotism.

Speaking to Guardian on Saturday, Kosovo's prime minister said there is still no contact with the Trump administration and there is every reason to believe that Kosovo-Kosovo relations- The US will remain as strong as ever.

“We have expanded our co-operation with the US during our mandate. Once it was mostly diplomatic and we have increased defence and development”, Kurti said.

However, Richard Grenelli, who was special envoy to Serbia and Kosovo in the first administration of Trump, wrote on Friday X that Kurti's optimism about where he was standing with Washington was “illusion”.

“The relations have never been lower”, said Grenelli, who had said a few days earlier that Kurt's government was “untrustable”.

Opinion polls ahead of Sunday's elections suggested that Kurt's Vetevendosje would not reach its majority as four years ago, though historic polls in Kosovo have not proved particularly reliable.

If he fails, the prime minister said Saturday he is not interested in a coalition with any of the main opposition parties.

But even those parties have a history of harsh rivalry and would also face significant obstacles to form a stable coalition. /Telegraphy/