In a live interview on Serbian national television, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said that Kosovo is still (viewed as) part of Serbia—at least for the next four years until his term as president reaches its end.
“I think (Kosovo) will be in Serbia,” Vučić said, adding that after his term, one should “ask someone else.”
According to him, Kosovo’s government in Pristina does not intend to form a Community of Serbian municipalities. The four municipalities, which border Serbia, do not recognise Pristina’s authority and see Belgrade as their capital instead.
Representatives of Serbs from northern Kosovo, including the Belgrade-backed Serbian List party (‘Srpska Lista’), demand an association of these Kosovo Serb municipalities to be set up before they would consider taking part in the upcoming local elections on April 23rd.
When asked if Serbs in the north of Kosovo would then vote in the upcoming local elections on April 23rd, Vučić responded they of course would not do so, especially since ‘Srpska Lista’ would not participate.
“Should they (then) vote for (Pristina’s PM Albin) Kurti?” he wondered, noting that this would be incomprehensible. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has repeatedly called on Serbs within Kosovo to participate in the elections.
Elections for these municipal bodies were postponed in December 2022. That decision was made in response to Serbs blocking roads and border crossings in protest over Pristina’s plan to replace Serbian car license number plates with those of Kosovo.
“Imagine such a democracy in which they come to rub salt on our heads in Belgrade because ‘there is not enough democracy’ and here ‘Serbs are to blame’,” explained Vučić, referring to recent arrests of Kosovo Serbs.
Pristina, he said, will “find countless reasons to provoke Serbs every day” and arrest “those Serbian guys most capable of opposing their actions in the north of Kosovo.” Having emptied that region of those kinds of people, Pristina could then “make an incursion and impose their rule by force,” Vučić claimed.
While the president noted that Serbia would still implement some parts of the EU’s proposal for the normalization of Belgrade-Pristina relations, others would be ignored.
“What can they [Western politicians] say to that?” Vučić asked rhetorically. “They see me being decisive, looking into their eyes and directly stating this ten times. What can they say?”
Vučić went on to note that, while both Germany and the U.S. initially interpreted the commitment to a legally binding agreement on the normalization of relations with Pristina as recognition of Kosovo’s sovereignty, they had since revised that position. This is “good news,” Vučić added, “but there is no more good news,” he lamented.
The president also commented on the ‘Open Balkan’ initiative which strives to allow the free movement of goods, services, people, and capital and enhance cooperation between regional parties.
Created by North Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania in 2021, it maintains an open-door policy. Vučić regretted that Montenegro thus far had not shown an inclination to join. “I would like Montenegro to be there as well, but this is their independent decision,” Vučić commented.
