Kosovo Holds Second 2025 Election Amid Governance Paralysis and EU Funding Deadlines

Kosovo held its second parliamentary election of 2025 on Sunday, December 28, in an attempt to resolve an institutional blockade that has stalled governance since the inconclusive general elections of February 9, 2025. Citizens cast ballots for all 120 parliamentary seats contested by 24 political entities, with voting conducted between 07:00 and 19:00 local time.

This snap election followed a protracted political deadlock after the February vote, where the left-nationalist Vetëvendosje (LVV), led by then-acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti, failed to secure an outright governing majority. The resulting paralysis lasted over six months, marked by significant difficulty in legislative function, including a protracted process that required more than 50 parliamentary votes simply to elect Dimalj Baša of Vetëvendosje as Speaker in late August 2025. Subsequent failures to form a government prompted President Vjosa Osmani to dissolve the Assembly and call the early elections on November 20, 2025.

The political impasse has imposed a substantial fiscal and international cost on Europe’s youngest nation. The expense of conducting two national elections and one local vote within 2025 alone totaled approximately €30 million for the state budget. More significantly, the inability of the legislature to ratify agreements has jeopardized roughly €1 billion in loan packages from the European Union and the World Bank. Specifically, World Bank support amounting to €90 million faces a termination deadline of February 13, 2026, if ratification is not secured. Furthermore, Kosovo has been excluded from accessing recent disbursements from the EU’s Growth Plan, which allocates €882.6 million for the country, due to the lack of a functioning parliament to approve the necessary terms.

Key political figures remain central to the national discourse. Albin Kurti, leader of LVV, who has proposed substantial economic measures including €1 billion in annual capital investment, attributes the impasse to opposition obstruction. His primary rivals, the center-right bloc composed of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), led by candidates such as Lumir Abdixhiku (LDK) and Bedri Hamza (PDK), have focused criticism on Kurti’s foreign policy, particularly regarding relations with Western allies and the situation in the north. In the February 2025 contest, the opposition bloc secured 46% of the vote, compared to LVV’s approximately 42%. The 120-seat parliament includes 20 seats reserved for national minorities, with a governing majority requiring 61 votes.

Beyond the immediate electoral contest, structural challenges persist in Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008. The country continues to manage socio-economic deficits, including an official unemployment rate exceeding 25%, with youth unemployment considerably higher, despite projections suggesting a slight decrease to 10.50 percent by the end of 2025. Approximately one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line, and the GDP per capita stands at 5,889 euros, well below the European Union average. The resolution of this political cycle is also time-sensitive, as President Vjosa Osmani’s term concludes in April 2026, requiring the Assembly to elect a successor before that date, a process demanding 80 votes in the first two rounds. The outcome of the December 28 vote is crucial for unlocking essential financial support and establishing the stability required for fundamental judicial and economic reforms.