Kurti government

Gamble

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti outside the Government building in Pristina, Kosovo, October 27, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations and Bob Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, send a joint letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday that the Trump administration should ease its pressure on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his outgoing administration.

Great Games

Great pandemics do not necessarily bring great power games to a halt. On the contrary, in the Balkans the coronavirus pandemic has only added fuel to the fire of these rivalries and competitions.

Skulduggery

While the world is gripped by news of the coronavirus' destructive spread, in Kosovo the fall of the Kurti government - and all the political and diplomatic wrangling which has come with it - competes for the attention of journalists and analysts.

The Impossible

The coronavirus seems to be doing the impossible - making Balkan politicians put petty squabbles on hold and act like statesmen, prioritising the public interest - particularly public health - in an effort to stem the pandemic. In most cases, at least.

The director of Serbia's Government Office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, has called on Srpska Lista [Serbian List], the Belgrade-backed political option in Kosovo, to stay out of what he called the "Albanian-Albanian" political conflict in the country.

At its second official meeting on Wednesday, Kosovo's new government under Albin Kurti scrapped several decisions made by the former government of Ramush Haradinaj.

Prime Minister Kurti for a start asked his cabinet to withdraw the decision of the former government to increase ministerial salaries by almost 100 per cent, and restore wages to their previous level.