by Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Kosovo’s opposition parties on Friday accused Prime Minister Albin Kurti of souring relations with Western allies after violence in the north of the country where NATO soldiers were injured, and called for a no-confidence motion against the government.
The recent installation by Pristina of mayors of Albanian origin in four towns in the predominantly Serb north of Kosovo, after their election in a vote boycotted by the Serbs, has caused a sharp increase in tensions in the region, where the force of NATO peace has sent reinforcements.
Kosovo’s parliament on Friday called for the opening of a session to discuss the consequences of tensions in northern Kosovo.
“You are playing with fire,” said Memli Krasniqi of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, speaking to Albin Kurti.
“If the price to pay is to endanger Kosovo’s relations with its biggest allies when the sanctions have already started, I want to ask you: is it worth it?” added.
Former Prime Minister and leader of the Alliance for Change, Ramush Haradinaj, called on MPs to pass a vote of no confidence in the government.
“Let’s put an end to this mistrust, this humiliation, these lies and this betrayal by dismissing this government”, Ramush Haradinaj told the deputies.
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz gathered Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani in Moldova on Thursday to ask them to ease the current tensions in their two countries by organizing new municipal elections in the northern regions of the country. Serb-majority Kosovo.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 with the support of several Western countries, including France, after the 1998-1999 war during which NATO intervened to protect Kosovo with an Albanian majority.
(Report Fatos Bytyci; French version Zhifan Liu, editing by Kate Entringer)
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