At the ‘Debat Përnime’ TV Programme, a series of electoral debates, several MP candidates from Kosovo opposition parties have been caught spreading misinformation on key issues, including population migration, ethnic demographics, and the prison system. They were debunked in real-time by fact-checkers.
Several MP candidates from the Kosovo opposition parties have been caught red-handed misinforming the public at the BIRN and Internews Kosova ‘Debat Përnime’ TV Programme. Fact-checkers, present in the series of electoral debates debunked the claims in real-time.
While in the past three weeks, opposition parties have revealed their electoral programmes at these debates, with real-time confrontation and at times debunked by journalists, the ruling party, Vetëvendosje Movement, has decided to boycott.
Vetëvendosje did not participate in the BIRN and Internews Kosova-moderated debates, even after twenty non-governmental organisations strongly condemned the party’s decision to boycott these debates ahead of the February 9, 2025 parliamentary elections.
Misleading Claims About Prisoners and Medication
The newly formed conservative ‘Koalicioni për familjen (Coalition for the Family)’ has made several problematic statements, many of which contain homophobic rhetoric and resulted in fines totaling around 33,000 euros by the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, or ECAP. The MP candidates of the coalition have also made false claims, which were debunked by fact-checkers at the ‘Debat Përnime’ debate on January 26 on at least one occasion.
Asdren Bytyqi, an MP candidate of the ‘Coalition for the Family’ stated that half of inmates in the High-Security Prison receive diazepam therapy. Diazepam is a type of sedative medicine that is used for anxiety, insomnia, and alcohol withdrawals, among other things.
“We plan to build factories and workshops within prisons,” Bytyqi pledged, to immediately elaborate that “currently, 50 percent of inmates in the High-Security Prison are on diazepam therapy due to psychological crises caused by inactivity.”
Kreshnik Gashi, editor in chief of Kallxo.com, a BIRN and Internews Kosova publication, pointed out that no such data exists in official correctional service documents.
Bytyqi responded that his claim was based on personal observations and not on any study or official report of Kosovo’s prison system.
“This is not an official statistic but rather an observation based on my numerous contacts with inmates as a lawyer. We, as part of the system, understand their issues better. Their needs are not being met,” Bytyqi explained.
Exaggerated demographics figures
MP candidates from different opposition parties hyperbolised figures on population when blaming the Vetevendosje-led government on issues such as migration and ethnic prioritisation.
Blerta Deliu, a parliamentary candidate from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, claimed on January 28 that “over 300,000 Kosovars have left the country in the past few years,” blaming the current Vetevendosje-led government for failing to create jobs and drive economic development, thus prompting mass emigration.
When Gashi asked her for the source of this claim and the exact timeframe she was referring to, Deliu reiterated that it referred to recent years.
“I specified that it happened in recent years. There has been a significant acceleration of immigration, especially in the past few years. I spend a lot of time in different towns and villages, and it breaks my heart to see so many houses with closed shutters/blinds. The largest wave of emigration has occurred during this government’s mandate, as confirmed by the latest population census,” she insisted.
Visar Prebreza, editor-in-chief at Kallxo.com, clarified that Deliu’s number did not match the official data from the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, KAS, published in December 2024.
“Based on the 2024 population census, Kosovo’s population was 1.739 million in 2011 and has now decreased to approximately 1.6 million. That means the net loss is around 140,000 residents, not 300,000,” Prebreza explained.
False claims on energy sector
MP candidates from different parties have made falsestatements regarding the energy sector.
Arben Mustafa, an MP candidate from PDK, claimed that the war in Ukraine caused Germany to go back to coal power plants, which as Gashi explained, goes against EU Green Deal.
Mustafa said that PDK “will carefully monitor the progress of coal power plants in developed countries. We have seen Germany returning to (coal) power plants and we do not exclude that option, but our priorities lie at the gas power plants.”
Gashi asks for elaboration and the source of this claim, explaining that “data from the EU show that it has been mentioned but not that they (coal power plants) are operational, most of the time they do not work.”
Mustafa once again claimed that PDK will “monitor” developed countries which continue to use coal power plants. “We are a country with big needs for electricity, with huge coal reserves which are not being utilized for the good of the economy.”
Gashi explained that “Germany’s policy is not to produce 100 percent energy from coal, on the contrary it is to reduce it to a minimum.”
On another occasion, on January 23, Arton Demhasaj, MP candidate from the AAK-NISMA coalition, alleged that the government had purchased 700 million euros worth of electricity from Serbia over the past four years.
“This government has spent 700 million euros on electricity purchases from Serbia in the past four years. Imagine if we had this money in our hands—we could have built a power plant without anyone’s help,” Demhasaj asserted.
No official reports confirm that Kosovo has spent this amount solely on electricity purchases from Serbia.
Kosovo currently generates electricity from two power plants, Kosovo A and B, which operate on coal. However, the country also imports electricity to meet the growing demand of consumers.
Kosovo primarily imports electricity from neighboring countries, depending on needs and regional market prices.
According to data from KAS, Kosovo purchases electricity on the free market, whereas Serbia is one of the main suppliers in the Balkans as part of the regional market.