As citizens in Kosovo brace for a possible new increase in electricity bills, Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti has sparked criticism by suggesting that high consumption is driven by people’s preference for unusually warm homes.
On Thursday, Kosovo’s electricity supply company KESCO submitted a request to raise electricity prices by 21.3 percent for 2026. The proposal has been sent to the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO), which is now responsible for deciding whether the price increase will be approved.
Responding to questions about the request during a visit to the Kosovo Innovation Center, Kurti did not initially address the proposed price hike directly. Instead, he focused on household heating habits, arguing that electricity consumption is high because citizens rely heavily on electric heating and keep indoor temperatures above what he described as “normal” levels.
“We must understand the fact that we heat a lot with electricity. Not only do we heat with electricity, but we heat a lot with electricity,” Kurti said. “Temperatures in rooms are obviously higher than normal. We like it warm.”
Joining the discussion briefly, Shpend Ahmeti from the Market Analytics Platform added: “We like to sit around in T-shirts.”
A video of Kurti’s remarks, published by the portal Raporto 24, quickly circulated on social media and triggered a wave of reactions.
Besnik Krasniqi, a journalist with Koha, criticized the prime minister’s comments, arguing that the government was shifting responsibility onto citizens.
“Prime Minister, the government did not give us the pleasure of having good winters and walking around in T-shirts at night. We always had that pleasure,” Krasniqi wrote.
“What you have given us over the past five years are electricity bills with astronomical figures, which you have increased three times and which are expected to rise further.”
“Same Mold, Different Address”
Kurti’s remarks have drawn comparisons to statements repeatedly made by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić in previous years, when discussing energy consumption and heating during periods of rising prices and global energy uncertainty.
In October 2021, during a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Vučić addressed the energy crisis by assuring citizens that they would remain comfortable.
“Everyone will have warm rooms, they can walk around their homes in T-shirts, as we are all used to. When it’s minus 10, everyone likes to be in short sleeves and shorts at home,” Vučić said at the time.
A year later, in November 2022, Vučić again used similar rhetoric, this time with a more ironic tone, speaking at a conference on renewable energy investments in the Western Balkans.
“We managed to ensure that people have electricity and gas, that they have overheated apartments, that they walk around in underwear and T-shirts at home, that nobody wants to put on a sweater,” he said. “Temperatures aren’t 19 or 20 degrees like in Europe, but 22, 23 or even 25.”
An even earlier, frequently paraphrased statement from 2016, when Vučić was prime minister, also resurfaced in public discourse.
“You can’t walk naked around the house in underwear and socks because it’s 19 degrees; you want 28, and then it’s ‘Vučić, turn on the heating,’” he said at the time.
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