United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo

With COVID-19 spreading, Kosovo's government falls amid rifts over the future of talks with Serbia.

President Hashim Thaci said on Tuesday morning that he has asked Kosovo's Constitutional Court to rule against new measures restricting people's freedom of movement as part of attempts to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

In cosying up to Washington and criticising Brussels, Kosovo's president is trying to protect his place at the negotiating table with Serbia, analysts say.

Kosovo on Friday confirmed its first two cases of coronavirus, as the authorities test more people. The announcement was made at a joint press conference of Prime Minister Albin Kurti and the Minister of Health, Arben Vitia. They said two of 15 suspected cases had tested positive for the virus. Both had arrived recently from Italy, by far the worst affected country in Europe.

The struggle between the President and Prime Minister of Kosovo over control of foreign and domestic policy widened on Monday after Prime Minister Albin Kurti at the last minute refused to attend a meeting summoned by President Hashim Thaci to discuss key policies. Thaci had invited in separate meetings all the Kosovo political leaders.

As he said, there is no reconciliation without an apology and this will be a topic of dialogue.
Addressing parliament in a special session on yesterday's Women's Day, which was also attended by alleged victims of sexual violence during the last war, Kurti said his government was "well prepared to sue official Belgrade before the International Court of Justice."

Following a visit to the Krusik defense industry plant in Valjevo, Vucic said that there was "no doubt" that in some EU countries there are "certain sympathies" for Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti.
"There was sympathy for Kurti in a part of Serbian public until he started talking about Greater Albania," Vucic said.

The US Special Envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue wrote this on Twitter in response to a letter from Gazette Express director Berat Buzhala, who had quoted allegations from Albin Kurti's advisor in an Interim Pristina institutions, on the social network.

Everyone, from Brussels to Washington, has enabled these two strongmen to continue holding their citizens in deadlock while simultaneously providing them with a chance to draft agreements in secret, without making much fuss at home, until everything is agreed and their patrons bless their heroic efforts.

"Ending a two-day visit to Washington, DC with excellent talks at the White House with US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Special Advisor to the US President and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Special Envoy for the Belgrade-Pritina dialogue Richard Grenell".