Democratic Party of Kosovo

MPs from the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, physically attacked Prime Minister Albin Kurti and government ministers during Kurti's speech in parliament on Thursday, as a physical fight erupted between the two groups.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his three co-defendants went on trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers on Monday morning, charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed between at least March 1998 and September 1999 in Kosovo and neighbouring Albania during and just after the war with Serbian forces.

During a joint meeting on Monday in Pristina between the governments of Kosovo and Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that he will personally submit a report to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg being prepared in Albania's parliament querying the Dick Marty report and what he alleged was its Russian influence.

Hundreds of ex-fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, gathered outside parliament from the early hours of the morning on Thursday, inside the legislature, opposition MPs blocked a vote on the bill that includes a proposed increase in the minimum wage, but not for veterans.

The pre-trial judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, Nicolas Guillou, decided on Thursday that Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli should remain in detention ahead of their trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo.

Kosovo's ruling Vetevendosje party suffered a heavy blow in Sunday's mayoral election runoffs, winning only four of the 12 municipalities it was competing in, and losing in the capital.

In a blow after its meteoric rise eight months ago, Kosovo's ruling Vetevendosje party will have to wait for the second round of local elections to see whether it has won control of any of the country's 38 municipalities.

Kurti's party did badly even in the municipalities where it had more than 60 percent of the votes in the parliamentary elections in February.
That Kurti experienced a total debacle is shown by the fact that in 38 municipalities in which there were elections, he did not get a sufficient number of votes to win in the first round.

Serbs have presidential candidates in 11 local governments.
Polling stations were closed at 7 p.m.
Prime Minister of the so-called Kosovo, Albin Kurti, was locked in offices and did not appear before reporters, although they waited for him for several hours for a statement regarding the latest information on local elections in Kosovo and Metohija.

Kosovo was shocked on Wednesday when Astrit Ademaj, a candidate to be mayor of Peje/Pec from the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, and a former mayoral candidate from the same party for Decan/Decani municipality, Blerand Kadrijaj, were killed in an armed incident at around 8.15pm.

Kadrijaj ran to be Decan/Decani mayor in the 2017 local elections.