• US Embassy says CEC decision on Serbian List “undermines partnership” (RFE)
• Rapajic: I believe foreign reps will take note of CEC’s undemocratic decision (Kosovo Online)
• Westerlund: Integration of Serb education and healthcare through Brussels dialogue (media)
• Students call for gathering in Mitrovica North today at 16:00 (Kossev)
• Tahiri: Haradinaj a serious candidate for President; we’ll talk with PDK and LDK (media)
• Kosovo retrial again finds ex-policeman guilty over village massacre (Prishtina Insight)
• Sources: Rama reaches big coalition in Pristina, only VV left outside (Klan Kosova)
• IMF announces arrival of mission in Kosovo from February 3 to 13 (media)

• Police, customs found 2 kg of narcotics at Merdare crossing, using scanner donated by US (media)

   

US Embassy says CEC decision on Serbian List “undermines partnership” (RFE)

The decision of the Central Election Commission not to adopt the list of MP candidates from the Serbian List “goes against the rights of citizens to democratically elect their representatives”, the US Embassy in Pristina said on Monday. “Any attempt to violate this basic principle undermines the partnership between the United States and Kosovo,” a spokesperson for the embassy told Radio Free Europe.

Rapajic: I believe foreign reps will take note of CEC’s undemocratic decision (Kosovo Online)

Aleksandar Rapajic, Program Director of the NGO Center for the Advocacy of Democratic Culture from North Mitrovica, told Kosovo Online that by deciding not to verify the election results solely for the Serb List, the Central Election Commission (CEC) has shown that it has become a political body. He added that he does not believe foreign representatives and embassies will fail to take note of such a fairly undemocratic decision.

Rapajic says this is the first time the Central Election Commission has verified election results separately for a single party. “It is obvious that Self-Determination wants to continue denying the Serb List anything at all, even what it is entitled to under the law and the Constitution. Once again, the Serb List has to appeal the CEC’s decision, and this only shows that the CEC has become a political body that makes political decisions, rather than one that verifies election results as they actually were,” Rapajic said.

He expects that the Election Complaints and Appeals Panel, to which the Serb List filed an appeal today, will overturn the decision of the Central Election Commission.

Westerlund: Integration of Serb education and healthcare through Brussels dialogue (media)

Most news websites quoted on Monday the Swedish Ambassador to Kosovo, Jonas Westerlund, as saying that the integration of the Serb education and healthcare in the Kosovo system should be done through the EU-facilitated dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

“We believe that the Kosovo legislation needs to be enforced in all 38 municipalities. I want to say that integration must ultimately happen on these matters. I have heard caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti who said that Serb doctors and professors got the licenses and this is a very good sign and I hope that the caretaker government will continue to address these issues. All citizens need to receive education and healthcare services in line with the requests of the local communities. I think the important issue is that there should be no obstacles when it comes to healthcare and education … This needs to be done through dialogue. We need to talk to the local communities and this needs to be discussed with the EU special representative. We believe that this should be done through that dialogue,” Westerland said during a discussion at the Media Centre in Cagllavica.

Students call for gathering in Mitrovica North today at 16:00 (Kossev)

The news website reported on Monday that a group of Serbian students who through their social networks support Serb students in Kosovo called on people to gather in front of the Prince Lazar in Mitrovica North today at 16:00. The news website also notes that the purpose of the event is not clear and that the last time this group of students gathered publicly was in May last year, when they warned of the systematic closure of institutions operating within the system of the Republic of Serbia in Kosovo.

Tahiri: Haradinaj a serious candidate for President; we’ll talk with PDK and LDK (media)

Besnik Tahiri from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) said on Monday that Ramush Haradinaj is a very serious candidate for Kosovo President. “In that case, Kosovo would not hurt relations with its allies, and it would strongly safeguard its national and state interests,” he argued.

Tahiri also said that Kosovo needs “a consensual president that would carry out his duties in the most dignifying way possible”. “We are looking into coordinating our political actions in the new Kosovo Assembly with the PDK and LDK and we need to see what their positions are because we need a consensual candidate,” he said.

Kosovo retrial again finds ex-policeman guilty over village massacre (Prishtina Insight)

A Pristina court for a second time found Muhamet Alidemaj, a former Serbian policeman, guilty of war crimes in the village of Izbice, where 130 men were shot dead in March 1999.

After a retrial, Pristina Basic Court on Monday sentenced Muhamet Alidemaj, a former Serbian policeman, to 13 years’ imprisonment for participating in a massacre at Izbice during the Kosovo war in March 1999.

Alidemaj had pleaded not guilty. In December 2025, he told the court: “I am one million per cent not guilty.”

In the first verdict on the case, on July 12, 2024, Alidemaj also similarly said that he was “not 100 per cent but 1,000 per cent” not guilty of the charges, claiming he had not even been in Kosovo from September 1998 to 2021.

The Pristina Basic Court had sentenced Alidemaj to 15 years of imprisonment but the Court of Appeals returned the case for retrial in August 2025. On Monday, the trial panel confirmed the verdict again.

The court established that, on March 18, 1999, Alidemaj entered the village of Izbice with other Serbian police and military forces. They then forced a villager to lead them on a search of her house at gunpoint, slapped her, stole 1,000 German marks from her and set her property on fire. They then forcibly separated women and children under 12 from the men and ordered the former to go to Albania.

Read more at: https://2cm.es/1i-qG

Sources: Rama reaches big coalition in Pristina, only VV left outside (Klan Kosova)

Pristina Mayor Perparim Rama has reached a broad-based coalition in the municipality, after an agreement with several parties, Klan Kosova reported on Monday citing unnamed sources. PDK, AAK, NISMA and the List for Pristina will reportedly be part of the coalition, and Rama is expected to announce the coalition on Tuesday or Wednesday. This way, the LDK is expected to have an absolute majority in Pristina, leaving only Vetevendosje outside the coalition.

IMF announces arrival of mission in Kosovo from February 3 to 13 (media)

The IMF announced on Monday the arrival of its mission to Kosovo from February 3 to 13, 2026, which aims to conduct an annual Article IV consultation with Kosovo, “assessing recent macroeconomic developments, analyzing the outlook and risks, and discussing economic policy and reform priorities with the authorities and other key stakeholders”. The mission is led by David Amaglobeli and will provide a concluding press release and hold a press conference following the visit. 

Police, customs found 2 kg of narcotics at Merdare crossing, using scanner donated by US (media)

Most news websites reported on Monday that Kosovo Police and Customs found 2 kilograms of narcotics hidden in a vehicle that was passing through the Merdare crossing. The drugs were found using an x-ray scanner that was donated by the United States.