Albin Kurti is the prime minister of Kosovo and the leader of the Self-Determination party. A charismatic left-wing nationalist and former student activist, he was first elected in 2021 in a landslide by Kosovar standards, with his party taking just over half the vote. In a subsequent election in February 2025 its share slid to 42%, and ten months of wrangling failed to produce a ruling coalition. On December 28th 2025 he won a resounding victory with 51% of the vote, securing a mandate to ratify a co-operation agreement with the European Union and unlock €880m ($1.03bn) in stalled aid.
Mr Kurti has won praise for leading what is widely regarded as the cleanest government Kosovo has had since independence. He has raised public-sector pay and child benefits. He rails against the corruption of his predecessors' governments.
Much of his support comes from standing up to Serbia and its political flunkies among the ethnic-Serbian minority in Kosovo's north. After an incursion by armed Serbs in 2023, he ignored pleas for restraint from America and Europe, expelled Serbian government institutions from Serbian-inhabited areas and tightened the grip of Kosovo's police and institutions there.
Patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as virtue.