Election of the Weekend III: Kosovo
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It’s snap election day on Sunday in Kosovo. Readers of this series may recall coverage of a Kosovo parliamentary election on this blog less than six months ago, and those with somewhat longer memories may recall coverage of the February 2025 election. (I believe Kosovo may be the first country to have a third election post?) Three elections in 18 months is rarely a particularly good sign for the health and functionality of a parliamentary system.
The underlying issues are the same as they were back in December: Kurti’s Vetëvendosje (PVV) party is the most popular, but falls short of a full majority, and has a dreadful time finding any kind of coalition partner. The December elections got them an actual bare majority of votes, and took them from 48 seats to 57, just four short of a proper majority. But they couldn’t find four votes to appoint a mostly ceremonial president, so here we are. Polling is illegal, which places certain limits on prognostication, but most people seem to think nothing in particular has changed, and PVV will likely come tantalizingly close to a majority, but unable to quite get to 61.