There was an episode of physical violence between opposition MPs and ministers in Kosovo’s parliament this Thursday. Prime Minister Albin Kurti, chairman of the nationalist and social democratic party Audetermination, spoke on the podium about the situation of the population of Serbian origin in the north of the country. An opposition MP placed a photo of Kurti as Pinocchio on the pulpit. Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi got up, took the photo, tore it up and sat down behind Kurti again. At that moment, MP Mergim Lushtaku from the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) approached Kurti and threw water at him. Bislimi responded by throwing a bottle of water at Lushtaku. From that moment, the exchange of blows between opponents and ministers spread, while the security team led Kurti away from the crime scene.
Opposition member Mergim Lushtaku tried to justify his actions at a press conference: “I just poured some water on the prime minister to cool him down. He had not expected the deputy prime minister to violate democracy in this way. I was attacked by him with a bottle of water and by two other ministers that I want to sue for assault in court. My protest was a democratic, symbolic and political protest.”
This week, several local media outlets published footage from June last year of Kurti’s party leader, Mimoza Kusari-Lila, negotiating with then Serbian lawmaker Slavko Simic of the Serbian List party over the approval of various laws. This trial caught many Kosovars by surprise, as the List government often accuses Serbia of being a mere puppet of the Belgrade government protecting “criminal gangs from the north (Serb-majority)”. In Kosovo, only 5% of the 1.8 million inhabitants belong to the Serb minority, while over 90% are of Albanian origin.
MPs from the opposition KDP appeared at Thursday’s debate with large photos showing Kurti and Mimoza Kusari-Lila with Pinocchio noses and under the Serbian word zdravo, which translates to “hello,” can be heard in the recording were.
The ruling party released a statement early in the afternoon saying: “This attack.” [contra Albin Kurti] It is aimed at the first Kosovo government not to have a minister or deputy controlled by Belgrade. It comes at a time of a very important diplomatic conflict between Kosovo and Serbia.”
The dispute comes at a time when both the European Union and the United States have ordered Albin Kurti’s government to ease tensions in northern Kosovo. The issue arose after Kurti refused to agree to the creation of a coalition of ethnic Serb-majority communities in Kosovo, as agreed between the two countries in Brussels in 2013. Faced with this rejection, more than 500 Serb-majority politicians, civil servants, judges and police officers from four municipalities in northern Kosovo resigned in November last year.
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Kurti decided last April to hold a new election to replace the resignation. The elections were boycotted and only 3.5% of the population took part. Since then, there have been several episodes of violence in the north of the country. The opposition accuses Kurti of provoking an unprecedented confrontation with the country’s traditional partners, such as the European Union and the United States, who are calling for the elections to be repeated.
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