The acting Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the acting Minister of Finance, Hekuran Murati, held a press conference following the meeting of the Government of Kosovo, during which they discussed and presented the budget and the draft law on the 2026 budget.
After decisions on increasing child allowances, old-age pensions, and announcements regarding a 13th salary in the public sector, Kurti said the decisions were made today because it is the practice of his government to submit the draft budget in the last week of October, as required by law, as reported by KosovaPress.
“Every year, according to the Law on Public Financial Management, October 31 is the final deadline to approve the law in government. This has always happened with us; we do it in October, sometimes on October 30, sometimes on October 31, and sometimes a few days earlier. But we don’t do it in September. This is done in the last week of October. In this case, we did it on October 31. This is not new. Why we approve the draft budget for 2026 at the government meeting on the last day of October is because the law requires it.”
The acting Prime Minister, who failed to secure a third mandate in the Assembly after the last vote, where he received the support of 56 deputies, said that political consensus requires the use of logic and rationality
“Regarding consensus, I call for logic and rationality. Consensus implies logic, the universal aspects of thinking, and rationality. Together, we hope that this increased and well-prepared budget will pass in the Ninth Legislature of the Assembly. I have no other tools to achieve consensus except logic and rationality. As for why we didn’t wait to do this later, if pensioners and workers affected by the minimum wage agreed to postpone, I would also agree. But I am convinced that they expect, from the moment the Prime Minister speaks, that it is important to proceed with implementation. We have read and reread the law and concluded that we can do it; therefore, there is no reason to postpone. Would it be better with a full four-year mandate government next? Certainly, it would be. But I believe it is better to continue as the acting government and make good decisions than to wait for a new government, which we don’t know if it will come this year or next, and only then will people benefit from the promises of the Prime Minister. If we can do good things now, we should do them. So when promises are fulfilled ahead of time, there should be no complaints. If promises are not fulfilled, there should be complaints, but if fulfilled early, we can all rejoice together.”
Furthermore, the acting Prime Minister said he will approach the upcoming meeting with the President and political party leaders with optimism and constructiveness.
“The meeting at the President’s office will discuss the next steps since the formation of the new government was not achieved in the first attempt. I want to go there with constructiveness and optimism. The functioning of the Assembly involves the formation of parliamentary committees. I don’t understand why they are not forming the committees; they have no other convincing arguments outside of logic and rationality,” said Kurti.
Meanwhile, Murati clarified that pensioners will receive their increased payments starting from November of this year”As you know, one change we made regarding pension payments is that payment will be made in the middle of the month, on the 15th, so that families have continuous liquidity. Anyone may have children or employed pensioners in the family, and besides salaries being paid at the end of the month, pensions in the middle of the month add liquidity. So, pensions will be received on November 15 or on whichever working day corresponds, and implementation will start from November,” Murati said.
