The deadline set by the Constitutional Court requires the presidential election process to be completed by October 6.

The political deadlock has coincided with protests in Prishtina over proposed changes to legislation governing the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, with yesterday’s demonstrations turning tense and police using tear gas.

Protests continued into the evening, with demonstrators calling for the draft amendments to the law on the Specialist Chambers to be approved in a second reading. Parliament approved the bill in principle on Monday in an extraordinary session, with 91 votes in favour, none against and no abstentions.

Following the session, Vetëvendosje leader Albin Kurti met Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) leader Bedri Hamza, but the talks failed to produce an agreement on either the presidential election or the Specialist Chambers legislation.

Further protests have been announced for Tuesday by the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans Organisation (OVL-UÇK), calling for the legislation to be approved in a second reading.

In a September 23 ruling, Kosovo’s Constitutional Court clarified that the 60-day deadline for electing a president began on August 8, when parliament was constituted, and expires on October 6.

Failure to elect a president within the deadline could trigger another political crisis and potentially lead to new parliamentary elections, depending on the subsequent constitutional process.

Kosovo has held three parliamentary elections in the past two years. The February 2025 election failed to produce a government, while a second election, held on December 28, 2025, was followed by an institutional deadlock over the election of a president and ultimately the dissolution of parliament in April. A third parliamentary election was held on June 7, 2026.

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Speaking at a government meeting, Kurti said the election of a president is a constitutional obligation requiring “the will to find a solution, readiness for compromise, and difficult decisions.”

“We are in the final part of April and a constitutional deadline is approaching. Going to elections, I believe, is not an option,” he said, adding that no party can secure 80 seats alone, making cooperation necessary.

Lawmakers have until April 28 to elect a head of state. If they fail, the country must go to early parliamentary elections within 45 days.

No party has enough votes to decide the outcome alone, so cross-party support is essential.

Kosovo has been without a full president since early April, increasing pressure to break the deadlock.

/Kosovapress/u.sh/

“President Osmani expects all parliamentary parties to implement the recent Constitutional Court ruling and finalize the constitutive session of parliament within 30 days, as required by the court,” Kupina said.

“If necessary, the President is ready to request further clarification from the Constitutional Court,” he added.

Since April 15, 39 unsuccessful parliamentary sessions have been held, failing to establish the new legislature. Disagreements persist among parties, particularly over the ruling Vetëvendosje’s nominee for speaker and the party’s demand to change the voting method from open to secret ballot.

In a ruling issued on June 26, the Constitutional Court ordered that the Assembly be constituted within 30 days.

/Kosovapress/u.sh/

According to the opposition MP, “the government decision to cut its state budget funds by 2.5 million euros at a time when the country’s growth is sporadic and when agriculture has only grown by 1.2% in a decade, is a wrong and unacceptable step.”

Tabaku stated that “agriculture hasn’t recorded growth in the last three or four years and government has paid minimum attention to the sector.”

She noted that the lack of European Union funds under its IPARD is also affecting development of the country’s agriculture.

According to Tabaku, food imports to Albania rose 22% this year, while farmers fail to sell their produce.

“Food imports increased 20% in the summer months along, a clear indicator of government’s failed policies,” she stated, adding that the government had abandoned 300 000 farmers across the country.

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The government head praised “the exemplary response” by the Kosovo security who, according to him, acted professionally and prevented the conflict from spreading further.

Addressing parliament session on a motion put forward for debate by the DP lawmaker Kreshnik Çollaku, PM Rama said this was the occasion for him to broadly and bluntly elaborate on his truths about Kosovo, starting with the criminal aggression in Banjska.

Rama said “that act of aggression triggered the claws of crisis in Kosovo north to open, again grabbing stronger than ever before the throat of the normalization dialogue and eventual state recognition for the Republic of Kosovo.”

“The ominous appearance of the past’s bloody shadow with guns, military fatigues right on the very scene filled with the spirit of Serbian nationalist extremism, weapons trafficked for attack not for self-defense purposes and bags of criminal proceeds in the north of Kosovo was like a media coverage of a foretold death,” the Premier told lawmakers.

PM Rama underscored that the news story reporting on the murder of the Kosovo police officer in the line of duty was “like a bomb exploding with its full shocking power of an unequivocal signal of the escalation of the conflict on that scene, where the tension has been simmering for a long time now, systematically reversing the normalization dialogue process between Kosovo and Serbia and lit the old lamp of the Balkan crisis in eyes of the democratic world.”

The government head said that the end of that event was exemplary thanks to the professional actions by the Kosovo security forces.

“While its epilogue, the Belgrade’s decision to declare national day of mourning for the criminals gunned down by the Kosovo security forces was the living embodiment of the shadow of the past that coexists with Serbia since its ultimate defeat in 1999 in Kosovo, like the shadow that haunts a person everywhere,” Rama added.

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Veliaj said that the proposal for a free monthly bus ticket for the students is long-awaited news by students. What is more it comes in the year when Tirana holds the title of “European Youth Capital”.

“Our proposal is to subsidize even a part of the dormitory bill. It is true that the students are not local residents of Tirana, but 9 out of 10 students stay in Tirana after they graduate from university, and since the costs of the dormitories have increased, we have to take an important decision, i.e. to subsidize at least half of the dormitories bill or about half, so that to ensure that students are do not have any impact by this situation. Also, we received several other proposals, among which a free monthly bus ticket for students, so that during the crisis they are not affected, especially students who come to Tirana, where the cost is higher than in their remote city. We are doing the calculations and at the next meeting of the municipal council we will bring several financial packages that address these situations”, said Veliaj./r.e/p.s./

In her reaction, Tabaku accused the government of continuing Public Private Partnership payment policies in the midst of the economic crisis.

“In the midst of a deep economic crisis, the government has continued its Public Private Partnership payment policies that have increasingly worsened the financial health of the budget. Albanian households spending 42% of their income are facing rising prices while inflation is expected to go above 5%. All the main products of the food basket have increased by over 10%, making the living of Albanians more expensive. More is being spent on energy, bread, milk and eggs. Everything is more expensive! There are more costly products while revenues just shrinks. Any solution from the government? More funds for incinerators, Public Private Partnerships and concessions! More taxes for citizens and less income for Albanians! Because the Albanians tax money go to the concessionaires as a profit. It is unfortunate that in a time of crisis, Albanians have a government that takes everything from Albanians and gives it to the oligarchs”, said Tabaku. /a.a/p.s./

INSTAT published today the Consumer Price Index for March 2022.

According to INSTAT, the annual change of the consumer price index in March 2022 is 5.7% while last year it was 1.2%.

Meanwhile, the monthly change of the consumer price index in March 2022, compared to February is 2.4%.

The annual increase of prices in March was mainly influenced by the group “food and non-alcoholic beverages” with 3.31%, followed by the group “transport” with 1.08%. Prices of “rent, water, fuel and energy” group gave an impact of 0.44%.

Compared to March 2021, the largest increase in prices is observed in the group “transport” with 19.9%, followed by the groups “food and non-alcoholic beverages” with 9.3%, “alcoholic beverages and tobacco” with 4.9% , “Hotels, cafes and restaurants” with 4.5%, “Entertainment and culture” with 3.5%, “Rent, water, fuel and energy” with 2.3%.

Compared to February of this year, the prices of the group “transport” increased by 8.9%, followed by the groups “food and non-alcoholic beverages” by 3.9%, “alcoholic beverages and tobacco” by 2.8%, ” hotels, cafes and restaurants”with 1.3%, etc./p.s./

Speaking at the plenary session of the Assembly while debating the prices of goods, Minister Balluku said that this is a global crisis that has affected all families, but that the government through the Social Resistance package is protecting the people most in need.

“The crisis is driven by the geopolitical situation. It is a worldwide crisis that has affected every family. Certainly, the most needy families are those most affected, so the government drafted the Social Resistance Package to mitigate the impact,” said Balluku.

The minister also replied to calls from the opposition to lift taxes on oil.

According to her, taxes on petroleum products have been imposed since the time of the Democratic Party government.

On the contrary, she stressed, we have zeroed taxes for the small business.

“We removed VAT for small business, which is the engine of the economy. These businesses have been supported since the first day of the current government, while we are also protecting them from exposure to high energy prices.

The minister stressed further on that through the Social Resistance Package, the needy families are being supported with 3 thousand Lekë per month for a period of 3 months, while for farmers the fund for tax-free oil increased to 1.45 billion Lekë.

“The minimum wage is also not taxed. If we would remove all taxes, as you suggest, where to find the money so that to provide the 3 thousand Lekë that has been decided to be given to a large group of families in need. How will the farmers be compensated? We have set up a board to make prices transparent. You have left traces in the hydrocarbon sector with the privatization of ARMO.  And you also demand accountability for geopolitical crises”, said Balluku./p.s./

In her speech in the Assembly discussing the price increase, Tabaku said that the difficult situation in our country was expected to even though Russia and Ukraine war had not started yet.

“The opposition asked the Albanian government to be extremely careful when discussing the state budget and proposed that it should be much more conservative because the future was very uncertain. But, the majority opposed arrogantly,” she said.

Tabaku added that Rama ruling majority has implemented a selective fiscal policy with taxes imposed on 95% of Albanians, avoiding only 5% of those who are oligarchs, concessionaires and winners of Public Private Partnerships.

“The economic crisis has begun to be felt since December 2021: According to EUROSTAT, Albanian families spend 42% of income on food basket products and beverages. This is the highest level of expenditure on this invoice in relation to revenue. The countries in the region spend 35%, while those in the EU 12%”, said Tabaku.

Likewise, Tabaku added that today, the public debt is really an obstacle as the Albanian government in good times has failed to spend and invest wisely so that to face this time of crisis.

Tabaku stressed that the reason for the increase in the oil price are the taxes imposed by the government.

“What are the reasons for the price of 230 lekë / liter that changes and increases more and faster than the price of oil on the stock exchange? The taxes imposed and paid together with the oil are 60% of the value of the oil sold today at every gas station”, said Tabaku./p.s./