Kosovo's outgoing Prime Minister Albin Kurti attends the plenary session as Kosovo's parliament fails to elect a new speaker for the fifty-second time in Pristina, Kosovo July 25, 2025. REUTERS/Valdrin Xhemaj

(Reuters) -Kosovo's parliament failed to elect Albin Kurti as prime minister on Sunday, increasing the likelihood that a snap election will be called to break a political deadlock following an inconclusive parliamentary vote in February.

Kurti, the leader of the Vetevendosje party who is currently serving as prime minister in a caretaker capacity, received only 56 votes in the 120-seat parliament - five short of the majority required to form a government.

Opposition parties, the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), voted against Kurti's candidacy.

It remains unclear if the country's president will ask the second- or third-placed party to form a government. Both of them have said they think a new election should be held.

Opposition parties have refused to govern with Kurti, criticising his handling of Kosovo's relations with its Western allies and his actions in Kosovo's ethnically divided north, where a Serb minority lives.

Kurti, a leftist and Albanian nationalist, came to power in 2021 when a coalition run by Vetevendosje received more than 50% of votes and secured a seven-seat majority in parliament.

Kosovo, Europe's newest country, gained independence from Serbia in 2008 with backing from the United States after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces in 1999.

(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci;Editing by Aidan Lewis and Helen Popper)