Kosovo opposition parties have criticised Kurti’s policies in the north, which have strained relations with key western allies. Violence broke out in May when police-backed ethnic Albanian mayors took office after an election that the ethnic Serb majority in the area had widely boycotted. The lawmaker Mergim Lushtaku, from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, approached Kurti while he was speaking and threw water at him, triggering the brawl. Kurti has said he was applying law and order in northern Kosovo with the deployment of police and new ethnic Albanian mayors. Belgrade pulled out of Kosovo in 1999 after Nato bombed the country to stop the onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists.

Source: The Guardian July 14, 2023 12:37 UTC