1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Israel-HamasUkraineEbrahim Raisi

Kosovo's PM pelted with eggs in parliament

September 22, 2015

Kosovo's opposition lawmakers have thrown eggs at Prime Minister Isa Mustafa, protesting against the government's deal with former master Serbia to give the minority Serb population greater local powers.

https://p.dw.com/p/1GakP
A frame grab taken from AA footage shows opposition MPs throwing eggs at Kosovo's Prime Minister Isa Mustafa during his speech at parliament in Pristina, Kosovo on September 22, 2015 (Photo: Erkin Keci / Anadolu Agency)
Image: picture-alliance/AA/E. Keci

"Shame, shame, shame!" yelled parliament speaker Kardi Veseli at the egg-pelting MPs as he temporarily halted Tuesday's session in Pristina.

Prime Minister Mustafa had just begun speaking when opposition lawmakers started hurling eggs at him from their benches, forcing the premier's bodyguards to rush and cover him with an umbrella. The speech was being broadcast live by local television stations.

The opposition is incensed over a deal brokered by the European Union last month giving more financial and legislative rights to the minority Serb community in the majority-Albanian country.

Kosovo's unilateral secession from Serbia came almost a decade after the 1998-1999 Kosovo war ended, when NATO intervened with air strikes to drive out Serbian forces and halt the killing of ethnic Albanian civilians.

In 2013, Pristina and Belgrade signed an EU-sponsored agreement to normalize ties. That helped Serbia to start EU accession talks a year later.

PM Mustafa defends the deal with Serbia, arguing the newly-formed Association of Serb Municipalities would not hold executive powers. The opposition sees it as a threat to the majority, which could deepen ethnic divide in the eastern European state.

The opposition parties have announced protests against the agreement.

shs/msh (AFP, Reuters)