The Kosovo parliament failed again to elect a government on Wednesday, leaving President Vjosa Osmani with no other option but to call a snap election.

On the final day of his two-week deadline to form a cabinet, Glauk Konjufca, the second choice of the Vetevendosje party for Prime Minister, received only 56 votes from MPs, five short of the threshold of 61.

It was the second time that Vetevendosje had failed to get a majority in parliament and form a government, after its leader, Albin Kurti, had the same result in his first attempt on October 26.

“Without a new government, our country has only one thing certain – a deepening of the current crisis,” Konjufca told MPs while presenting his cabinet and the main points of its platform.

The second failure to elect a government was the culmination of an eight-month-long political crisis which started in April with the failure to elect a speaker – a saga that dragged on until August.

Konjufca said the failure to elect a government would have heavy consequences. “2025 will be remembered as a year the majority of which was lost in the attempt to establish our constitutional institutions – a parliament and government,” he told MPs while presenting his cabinet.

“With this animosity along the political spectrum, it will be difficult to find a consensus for the election of a [new] President in March [next year],” he added, in a hint that Kosovo might have to go again to the polls if MPs fail to elect a new head of state when Osmani’s five-year term ends.

However, opposition parties were unmoved by Vetevendosje’s pleas.

“We have been invited to a session which, in essence, is nonsense because we all know its results. Glauk Konjufca himself does not believe he can be a true Prime Minister with Kurti as his deputy,” Uran Ismajli, from the Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, said. “This session is not called for the election of a Prime Minister but to blame the opposition,” he added.

Armend Zemaj, from the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, urged Osmani to announce an election date as soon as possible. “We call for free and democratic elections,” Zemaj said.

However, Vetevendosje blamed the failure to elect a government on the other political parties uniting against its leader, Kurti, who has led the government since 2021.

“The opposition parties have for more than nine months barricaded themselves against Albin Kurti. Their only goal is to oppose Kurti, without offering an alternative, leaving aside any interest in the country and its citizen,” Hekuran Murati, a Vetevendosje MP, told the media after the session.

Ahead of the attempt to elect a government, parliament held an extraordinary session to deal with backlogged international agreements and the approval of a budget for the public broadcaster, RTK. But that session also failed because of the lack of a quorum. MPs from the PDK, the LDK and Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK, refused to participate.

After winning elections by a landslide in 2021, Vetevendosje again won elections in February but lost its majorityi n the 120-seat assembly.