The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has declared that he will not give in to the "fascist pressure and blackmail" that Belgrade promotes in his country by preventing the work of elected Albanian mayors in areas with a Serb majority and that he is not afraid of the announced sanctions. by the United States if it does not contribute to de-escalating the situation.
"I can imagine early municipal elections, in two years, but until then, the elected mayors must be able to do their job and have access to the buildings that are the headquarters of the municipalities and belong to the State," Kurti declared at the global security conference that is being held in Bratislava (Globsec). Allowing councilors to govern their cities from another building as a temporary measure or to reduce violence "would be creating a parallel structure, taking a step towards illegality," he argued. As an alternative he proposed that the elected Albanian mayors elect Serbian vice mayors.
Before an audience that included several leaders of the Western Balkans and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Kurti lashed out at Serbia and what, in his opinion, is the largest political party in that country, the Orthodox Church. .
"The idea of ethnic cleansing is propagated in the churches and fascism makes them its own, but Kosovo will resist because our vocation is democratic and multi-ethnic," stressed the prime minister to denounce the appearance in the municipalities with a Serb majority of graffiti with the Zetas used by the Russian aggressors in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron, also invited to the Forum, blamed the Kosovar government for the current situation of tension in the north of the country, where clashes between Serbian demonstrators and NATO forces on Monday left 80 injured, 30 of they soldiers.
"There is clearly a responsibility of the Kosovar authorities in the current situation and a lack of respect for an agreement that is important and was closed several weeks ago," he declared in Bratislava, after a meeting with the Slovak president, Zuzana Caputova.
Macron thus referred to a new plan promoted by France and Germany, under the mediation of the European Union, to normalize relations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which in 2008 unilaterally declared its independence, which Belgrade still does not recognize.
Macron claimed that Pristina made a mistake by organizing elections last April in four municipalities where Serbs are in the majority, despite the fact that that community boycotted the process.
From these elections, in which only 3% of the census participated, ethnic Albanian mayors were elected whose authority the Serbs reject, a situation that has led to escalation of tension and violent protests.
Macron specified that "Kosovo's attitude towards these elections has been a mistake".
Kurti denied that one of the factors that sparked the violence was the lack of coordination with the NATO forces that have been deployed in the country since the end of the war in the former Yugoslavia. "There is a dialogue with NATO and the EU, I am not saying that it is daily and I am not saying that we are always in agreement, but of course there are meetings," said the prime minister in response to accusations by the United States, which will impose sanctions on Kosovo until Pristina take measures to de-escalate the tense situation that led to violent riots in the north of the country, with a Serb majority.
The US ambassador to Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenie, announced at a press conference on Tuesday that the first sanction is the cancellation of Kosovo's participation in the US-led Defend Europe 2023 military exercise. In addition, Washington, "will cease all efforts to help Kosovo to obtain recognition from States that have not done so and in the process of integration into international organizations." Among those States is Spain.
On Monday, Kosovar Serbs protested outside the municipal buildings of Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, Serb-dominated municipalities in northern Kosovo, against the newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors, who took office on Friday guarded by Kosovar police. Clashes erupted when Zvecan protesters attacked KFOR soldiers with tear gas, explosives, stones and police batons. Hovenier claimed that "the [Kosovo police] operation that took place on Friday to gain access to municipal buildings by force was not coordinated with the United States."
"The crisis that has been created has been totally unnecessary, the mayors have had the opportunity to work from other administrative buildings located in these municipalities, so it was not necessary to insist on entering these buildings," said the US ambassador, who has asked Kurti to urgently withdraw the Kosovar police to withdraw from three disputed municipal buildings in Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan.
The Kosovar prime minister reiterated in Bratislava that the Kosovar special units will remain in the buildings and that the US sanctions worry him but "do not scare me."
In response to the recent unrest and the injury to 30 NATO Forces in Kosovo, NATO has ordered the deployment of the Operational Reserve Forces (ORF) for the Western Balkans and an additional multinational battalion of reserve forces "will be ready to reinforce KFOR within seven days "if necessary."
Serbian President Alexandar Vucic met on Tuesday with representatives of the so-called Quint countries (United States, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) and with the Russian ambassador, Alexandar Bocan-Harchenko. Vucic said that he wanted to ensure the "security" of Serbs in northern Kosovo. "There is one small condition for that, which I cannot believe that the people of Quint, the most powerful Western countries, cannot fulfill it, and that is the withdrawal of the Kosovar police forces from northern Kosovo and the second is the dismissal of the fake mayors who don't represent anyone," he said.
In this context of tensions in the Western Balkans, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced in Bratislava a new growth plan for the Western Balkans based on four pillars: bringing the Western Balkans closer to the EU single market, deepen regional economic integration, speed up fundamental reforms and increase pre-accession funds.
Von der Leyen argued that "to a certain extent, this is a new approach for the European Union: We are not only asking our partners to take new steps towards us. We are also taking a big step towards them. Our common goal is to accelerate their path towards the EU. And for this, we bring our Union closer to the Western Balkans".
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