Kosovo in a Political Loop

Dear Saša,

Kosovo today is facing more than a political or institutional crisis. Extreme political polarisation has produced a political culture in which polarisation has become more important than the ability to govern the country. The public interest is not placed above party or personal interests. This is a more dangerous stage than any individual institutional deadlock, because the question is no longer simply who will form the next government, but whether the existing political elite is capable of creating a new political reality and delivering stability and development.

For almost two years, the country has been moving in a political loop in which institutional deadlocks are followed by elections, elections produce almost identical results, and the political crisis then returns to where it began. Each new political cycle ends almost exactly where it started.

At the same time, the political credibility of almost all relevant parties is steadily eroding. Citizens increasingly distrust their promises, yet they see no political alternative in which they can place their confidence. The result is therefore not political change, but political stagnation.

Such a political environment begins to reproduce itself: the same leaders, the same political messages, the same conflicts and, ultimately, almost the same election results.

Another symptom of this political loop is the near-total disappearance of trust among political actors. In Kosovo, compromise is no longer regarded as a political skill, but as a political risk. Cooperation is perceived as weakness rather than responsibility. As a result, every institutional crisis lasts far longer than it needs to.

This is most visible today in the Democratic League of Kosovo. However, the problem is not confined to a single party. Almost all major political parties are confronted with the same question: what do they represent beyond their leaders? What vision do they offer for Kosovo over the next decade? Can their policies survive independently of the personalities who lead them, and do they offer a future or merely the management of existing conflicts?

The crisis within the LDK is not simply the consequence of its weaker electoral result on 7 June, nor of the fact that even Vjosa Osmani’s return failed to change the political dynamic. A much more serious issue is the loss of political credibility suffered by the current leadership and the absence of a clear answer as to what the LDK represents today and what kind of future it offers. This, however, is a question that extends far beyond a single party.

There is growing discussion about the possibility of new elections as early as December this year. However, if the same political leaders stand in those elections with the same political narratives, it is difficult to expect a substantially different outcome. New elections may slightly alter the distribution of parliamentary seats, but they will not, by themselves, change the political logic that produces the deadlock.

The greatest cost of this political loop is not institutional paralysis, but a lost future. While Kosovo remains consumed by endless internal political battles, the world is undergoing perhaps its most profound transformation since the end of the Cold War. For the first time since gaining independence, Kosovo is simultaneously missing two major historic transformations: the technological revolution driven by artificial intelligence and the redefinition of Europe’s political, security and economic architecture. Both will shape the coming decades, yet Kosovo today has almost no strategy of its own for either.

Europe is already investing billions of euros in the industrial application of artificial intelligence, new energy systems, data centres, digital infrastructure, education and technological competitiveness. In Kosovo, there is virtually no serious political debate about what the country should look like in ten or twenty years. Still less is there a national strategy capable of addressing the challenges posed by the industrial application of artificial intelligence and its consequences for the economy, the labour market and the education system.

Countries investing in artificial intelligence today are not merely investing in a new technology, but in future productivity, competitiveness and political influence. Those that miss this transformation risk long-term economic and developmental marginalisation.

At the same time, Europe’s geopolitical architecture is also changing. Following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, energy security, industrial policy, defence and technological development are becoming parts of a single strategic framework.

Kosovo has yet to define its place in the Europe that is emerging. While we debate who will form the next government, others are already shaping the world in which Kosovo will live for decades to come.

This is precisely why the political messages coming from Washington should be read carefully. The United States has made it clear that it sees Kosovo as part of a new regional energy architecture, including through the use of US liquefied natural gas, or LNG. At the same time, Washington has indicated that the launch of a strategic dialogue between Kosovo and the United States will be linked to the fulfilment of the commitments Kosovo has made to the Serb community. Although the precise conditions are not yet known, it is evident that the authorities’ approach towards the municipalities in northern Kosovo and the establishment of the Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities will form an important part of future relations between Pristina and Washington.

This means that these issues can no longer be postponed indefinitely. Sooner or later, they will require clear political answers.

That brings us back to the beginning of this story.

Kosovo is trapped because the existing political elite no longer generates new political energy, new ideas or a new generation of leaders capable of thinking beyond the next electoral cycle.

Kosovo today needs a new political generation with the courage to think about the country over the coming decades, rather than merely about the next election. A generation that understands that Kosovo’s future will not be determined solely in the Assembly of Kosovo, but also in the development of artificial intelligence, in the energy corridors connecting Europe and in the new security architecture that is now taking shape.

Time will not wait for Kosovo. In politics, even misguided decisions can be corrected, but it is far more difficult to make up for missed opportunities.

The greatest danger facing Kosovo is not that it will choose the wrong path, but that, trapped in its own political loop, it will choose no path at all. And while it waits for the political cycle finally to be broken, the world will not stand still. When Kosovo eventually decides to move forward, it may discover that the future it could have shaped has already been shaped by someone else.

Warm regards,

Ilir