Vucic: Because of Kurt, the Serbian elections will not be held in Kosovo

The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said on Friday that the December 17 parliamentary elections will not be held in the Serbian areas of Kosovo, because, as he said, "the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, does not want to allow the Serbs to have basic rights".

"The West will say that there is no way to put pressure on Kurti and will issue a statement. There has already been a statement from the spokesperson of the European Union, Peter Stano, and that's it," said Vučić in Dubai, where he is participating in the Climate Change Leaders' Summit, reports Beta.

He said that "Kurti exclusively insists on recognizing Kosovo's independence as a condition for holding elections".

"We must recognize Kosovo so that Serbs can participate in the elections. Point. Nothing more and nothing less. And everyone in Serbia and Europe knows this. It is good that they will react to this, but we will not have anything from that reaction", said Vucic.

On November 19, the prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, in a letter sent to the head of the mission in Kosovo of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Michael Davenport, said that Kosovo and Serbia should reach a special agreement, in so that the members of the Serbian community in Kosovo, who have dual citizenship, can vote in the territory of Kosovo for the Serbian parliamentary elections.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, Besnik Bislimi, said on Thursday that it will not be allowed to hold the parliamentary elections of Serbia on the territory of Kosovo for the Kosovo Serb community next month, in the absence of an official request from the Serbian authorities for this.

Responding to the spokesperson of the European Union (EU), who criticized Kosovo for the ban on holding those elections in the territory of Kosovo, Bislimi said that the attempt to organize the elections of "another state in Kosovo" without prior request, is not in the spirit of dialogue.

According to a practice dating back to 2017, Serbs in Kosovo participated in Serbian elections and the votes were tallied by the OSCE. Then, those votes were counted in Raska and Vranje, the two border towns of Serbia.

This practice was allowed by the Kosovo authorities until last year. In 2022, the ruling party, the Vetëvendosje Movement, said that Serbia should make a direct request to Kosovo to hold these elections on its territory.

In April of that year, elections were held in Serbia, and for the first time, the Government of Kosovo did not allow elections to be held on the territory of Kosovo.

As a result, Kosovo Serbs have organized and traveled to Serbia by bus to vote.

In January of that year, the Assembly of Kosovo also approved a resolution, through which the holding of votes in Kosovo for a referendum of Serbia on constitutional changes was opposed.

The QUINT countries – the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and France – and the European Union had awaited the adoption of the resolution with regret.

The international community has repeatedly called on the Government of Kosovo to find ways to hold Serbian elections.

The last parliamentary elections, which Serbia has organized for the Serbian community in Kosovo, were those of June 21, 2020./REL