A Fight Erupts in Kosovo's Parliament During Prime Minister's Speech

A scuffle broke out in the Kosovo parliament after an opposition MP threw water from a bottle at Prime Minister Albin Kurti during a speech.

Video footage of the incident shows the MP approaching Kurti with a bottle of water in his hands, while the Prime Minister addresses the audience from the rostrum.

The MP, identified by local media as Mergim Lushtaku of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, splashed water in the faces of Kurti and his deputy Besnik Bislimi, triggering a scuffle as ministers and other MPs rushed in to restrain Lushtaku.

Local media reported that Kurti was escorted out of the chamber during the chaos.

According to the local news website Kallxo, the dispute began after opposition MPs placed a photo of the prime minister with an elongated nose, similar to Pinocchio, in front of the rostrum before Kurti's speech. Bislimi removed and tore up the photo while Kurti was speaking.

The latest disagreement is prompted by episodes of violence in northern Kosovo following the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors after April's mayoral elections, the results of which were not accepted by the local Serb majority. Kosovo's opposition parties have criticised Kurti's policies for leading to the unrest.

Kurti gave a speech detailing measures to ease tensions with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo.

In particular, Kurti announced that he would reduce the number of special police officers stationed at four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb areas in northern Kosovo and hold new mayoral elections in each of the cities.

The special police forces have withdrawn from the municipal buildings. The move infuriated the opposition, which claimed that Kurti had been "experimenting" for months and had jeopardised Kosovo's international standing only to back down later.

Kurti said he was enforcing law and order in northern Kosovo by deploying police and new ethnic Albanian mayors. The US and EU have called on him to keep the mayors in various locations away from the north until the situation is resolved.

When the parliamentary session resumed four hours later, the opposition did not allow the ruling MPs to take the floor and put up mocking posters of Kurti and another MP. Another short scuffle broke out, which was quickly broken up by security guards.

Sessions of the Kosovo parliament were often disrupted. When Kurti's Self-Determination party was in opposition, its lawmakers used tear gas and other violent acts to disrupt sessions on a border agreement with Montenegro and the association of ethnic Serb-majority territories.

Kosovo is a former province in Serbia whose 2008 declaration of independence is not recognised by Belgrade. The majority of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have also refused to recognise Kosovo's statehood, which is supported by the United States and most EU countries, but not by Russia and China.

Serbia has raised the army's combat readiness and threatened military intervention in response to tensions in the north of the country, which borders Serbia. Belgrade withdrew from Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombed the country to stop an offensive by ethnic Albanian separatists.

As previously reported by The Gaze, clashes occurred in several municipalities in northern Kosovo in May. The police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse Serbian protesters. The reason was the refusal of local Serbs to accept the newly elected Albanian mayors, whom the Serbian population boycotted in the April elections. The situation escalated on Monday, May 29. In the Kosovo city of Zvecan, members of the pro-Serbian local party "Serbian List" refused to comply with the peacekeepers' order to leave the municipal building and broke through the police and peacekeepers' cordon. In response, they used stun grenades and, according to Serbian media reports, firearms. Approximately 25 NATO peacekeepers and over 50 Serbian protesters were injured in the clashes, with one in critical condition and two with serious injuries.

The EU has advised both countries to reach a solution to their dispute through EU-mediated dialogue in order to join the bloc.

The West has stepped up efforts to bring the two sides together, fearing further instability in Europe as the war in Ukraine continues. NATO has sent additional troops to its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo to boost security.