The United States and the European Union have pressured Kurti to help calm the situation after violence broke out in May after police-backed ethnic Albanian mayors took office following an election that the ethnic Serb majority in the area had widely boycotted.ĭozens of people were injured in clashes between local Serbs and Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers, raising fears of a conflict similar to the one in 1998-99 that killed more than 10,000 people. Kosovo opposition parties have criticised Kurti’s policies in the north that have strained relations with key Western allies. Local media said Kurti was escorted out of the assembly hall during the chaos.ĭuring his years in opposition, Kurti gained notoriety for unleashing tear gas canisters during legislative sessions, forcing lawmakers to don gas masks as noxious smoke filled the chamber.
There were no reports of injuries following the incident.Įarlier, Kurti’s deputy Besnik Beslimi had torn up a drawing mocking Kurti that the opposition had given the prime minister. The move sparked a chaotic brawl as legislators clashed in shoving matches. Lawmaker Mergim Lushtaku from the Democratic Party of Kosovo approached Kurti on Thursday while he was speaking and threw water at him. A brawl has erupted in the Kosovo parliament after an opposition lawmaker threw water on Prime Minister Albin Kurti while he was speaking about government measures to defuse tensions with ethnic Serbs in the country’s north.
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