Students Join PDK and Alliance Protest: We Are Demanding Functional Institutions

A group of students from the University of Pristina “Hasan Prishtina” joined today a gathering organized by deputies from the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, who are protesting outside the government building. They immediately called for the institutions to be unblocked and for the Assembly to begin its work.

Speaking during the gathering, student representative Granit Spahiu stressed that institutional paralysis sends an extremely negative signal to the younger generation.

Spahiu said that students are not asking for favors, but for a university that advances, real opportunities for young people, and a state that keeps them in the country rather than pushing them to emigrate. He added that whenever others have remained silent or waited, students have always been at the forefront of change. He warned that if anyone expects young people to remain indefinitely in classrooms while watching the state being held hostage, then they have completely failed to understand Kosovo’s students. Spahiu concluded by saying that they were not there simply to ask for a future, but to demand permission to build it—and, if necessary, they would rise again for Kosovo.

PDK deputy Përparim Gruda sharply criticized the current executive, declaring that the only offer made to students during this government’s tenure has been abandoning Kosovo. He pointed out that young people who were children when Albin Kurti won the election in 2020 are now university graduates waiting for jobs, but are facing the reality of mass emigration from the country. Gruda argued that 300,000 people have left Kosovo over the past five years, constituting a mass displacement rather than ordinary migration. He described the current situation as an overturning of the constitutional order, stressing that progress cannot be expected for young people and their families when parliament, the country’s main institution, is being kept blocked.

Meanwhile, Alliance deputy Albana Bytyçi addressed her appeal directly to Prime Minister Kurti, inviting him to go to the Assembly to form the institutions. She said that the abuse and blockade of the state are continuing and that deputies, who have sworn to defend the constitution, will not stop until the institutions and government are formed, thereby ensuring that work can continue.

The protest by PDK and Alliance deputies has now continued for weeks, with them standing outside the government building for several hours every day to demand the continuation of the constitutive session. Representatives of the two parties believe that the government cabinet has occupied the building, since they themselves have been sworn in as deputies, and accuse the Vetëvendosje Movement of openly violating the Constitution and the Assembly’s rules of procedure.