PRISTINA: A brawl occured in the Kosovo parliament on Thursday after an opposition legislator threw water on Prime Minister Albin Kurti while he was speaking about government steps to defuse tensions with ethnic Serbs in the country’s north.
Lawmaker Mergim Lushtaku from the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) approached Kurti while he was speaking and threw water at him.
The move erupted a chaotic brawl as lawmakers clashed in shoving matches. However, no injuries were reported in the incident till the filing of this report, acording to Al Jazeera.
Local media reported that Kurti was escorted out of the parliament hall during the chaos.
During his time in opposition, Kurti gained notoriety for using tear gas canisters during legislative sessions, forcing legislators to don gas masks as noxious smoke filled the hall.
The opposition parties have criticised Kurti’s policies in the countr’s north that have lowered ties with important Western allies.
The US and the European Union (EU) have pressured Kurti to help calm the situation after violence erupted in May after police-backed ethnic Albanian mayors came to power following an election that the ethnic Serb majority had widely boycotted.
Clashes in Kosovo
Dozens of people were wounded in clashes between Kosovo police and local Serbs and NATO-led peacekeepers, raising concerns of a conflict similar to the one in 1998-99 that claimed more than 10,000 lives.
On Wednesday, the prime minister announced the reduction of the number of special police officers deployed outside 4 municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority parts in northern Kosovo, and hold new mayoral polls in each of the towns.
The decision has enraged the opposition, who said that Kurti experimented for months and damaged position of Kosovo on international level only to back down later.
