Albin Kurti (; born 24 March 1975) is a Kosovar Albanian politician and activist, serving as the prime minister of Kosovo since 22 March 2021, having previously served in that role between February and June 2020. He came to prominence in 1997 as the vice-president of the University of Pristina student union, and a main organizer of non-violent demonstrations in 1997 and 1998. When Adem Demaçi became the political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Kurti worked in his office. He has been member of the Assembly of Kosovo since 2010 in three consecutive legislatures. Early life Albin Kurti was born on 24 March 1975 in Pristina, at the time part of Yugoslavia. Kurti's father originates from an Albanian family from the village of Sukobin (Albanian: Sukubinë) in Ulcinj Municipality, Montenegro; an engineer, he moved to Pristina in search for employment. Kurti's mother is a retired elementary school teacher, born and educated in Pristina. Kurti finished his elementary and middle education in Prishtina. In 1993 he got admitted at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pristina as a top applicant, having scored 100% in the admission exam. He graduated in 2003 in Telecommunications and Computer Engineering. He is married to Norwegian Rita Augestad Knudsen, and they have a daughter named Lea. In addition to his native Albanian, he also speaks Serbo-Croatian, French and English. Besides his Kosovo citizenship, Kurti also holds Albanian citizenship and has voted in Albanian elections. Rise to prominence and arrest In Pristina, Kurti attended primary and secondary schools from 1981–1993, then studied electrical engineering at the University of Pristina. During this time, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up into its former republics, which were now striving for independence (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro). Against the background of increasing ethnic tensions between Kosovar Serbs and Kosovar Albanians, Serbia began in 1989 with a withdrawal of essential Kosovar-Albanian rights and reprisals against the Albanian majority. The Kosovar Albanian professors and students at the University of Pristina were therefore forced to move the lectures to private rooms from 1991–1996, where Kurti also completed his studies. In 2001 he was still studying computer science. Albin Kurti first came to prominence in October 1997, as one of the leaders of the student protests in Kosovo. Albanian students protested against the occupation of the university campus by the Yugoslav police. The protests were crushed violently, but the