Kosovo president sets December 28 as date for snap vote

PRISTINA (Reuters) -Kosovo’s president, Vjosa Osmani, set December 28 as the date for an early parliamentary election on Thursday, after the ruling Vetevendosje party of Prime Minister Albin Kurti failed to secure enough votes in the parliament to form a government.

Kosovo's parliament has not been able to form the government since a February election, which Vetevendosje won but did not secure enough seats to rule alone.

"My call to the parties is that now they engage in a dignified election campaign, with mutual respect and the highest political standards," Osmani told reporters.

"I call parties after the results, sit down, talk and take the responsibility that is yours. Our citizens urgently need stable and responsible institutions that make decisions in their interest."

Opposition parties have refused to govern with Kurti, criticising his handling of Kosovo's relations with its Western allies and his actions in Kosovo's ethnically divided north, where a Serb minority lives.

Kurti, a leftist and Albanian nationalist, came to power in 2021, when a coalition run by Vetevendosje received more than 50% of the votes and secured a seven-seat majority in parliament. 

Kosovo, Europe's newest country, gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with backing from the United States after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces in 1999.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Alex Richardson)