Kosovo’s public broadcaster, Radio Television of Kosovo, RTK, has not received the second half of its budget for 2025 from the state, leaving its employees at risk of not receiving their July salaries next week.

Fadil Hoxha, adviser to the director of RTK, told BIRN that the budget “for the first six months of the year was allocated in January and the other instalment should have been allocated in July”.

RTK falls legally under the authority of parliament, he explained, so “the parliamentary committee on the budget procedurally issues the money, which is then allocated to the bank account of RTK by the Ministry of Finance”.

But Kosovo has not had a functioning parliament since the February 9, parliamentary elections. MPs gathered to inaugurate the parliament on April 5, after the election results were certified, but failed to do so.

On July 26, MPs failed for the 54th time to inaugurate a parliament. That date was the final deadline set by the Constitutional Court, which one month earlier gave the body 30 days to elect a speaker.

MPs from the main Vetevendosje party have insisted on electing their candidate, acting Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu. When that failed, they sought to establish a committee for a secret vote on the speaker, so they could again elect Haxhiu. The other parties opposed both moves.

MPs cannot make any further attempt to resolve the issue until August 8, when the Constitutional Court will rule on what happens next. Meanwhile, some half of the 8.9 million euros allocated for the RTK budget cannot be used by the broadcaster.

Earlier on Friday, the RTK director, Rilind Gervalla, wrote on Facebook that RTK employees had showed up despite knowing they would not receive their salaries – and had waited for a government meeting to include the RTK budget allocation, which did not take place.

“Sometimes work is not just a means of survival. It is a way of not losing yourself in a world that is slowly wiping you out. It is a silent resistance,” he wrote.

On Thursday, the RTK union announced a protest on August 6, expressing concern that “on July 31, when the month ends, the country’s public medium remains without funding, leaving over 700 workers and their families without salaries”.