Valley Albanians target 4 deputies in Serbian parliament

Reaching the agreement according to them is the starting point to target strengthening the voice of Albanian voters living in the Presevo Valley.

The agreement between the Party of Democratic Action, the Alternative for Change, Movement for Democratic Progress and the Movement for Reform of the Albanian Democratic Party has been reached Thursday in Tirana, with the mediation of incumbent Minister for Europe and the Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania Gent Cakaj.

Albania's Arifi, chairman of the Presevo municipality, which comes from the Group of the Alternative for Change, tells Radio Free Europe that after reaching this agreement, the purpose of the leaders of these political parties is that the problems that exist in the Presevo Valley, for which not rarely these leaders themselves have argued, they carry to Serbia's Parliament.

The key is that Albanians in Serbia's Parliament, in the last 10 or 12 years, since they have started participating in this decade of this century have not been represented, not only with sufficient numbers, but not with sufficient quality. Now there's another situation. Unification could bring three to four deputies, enabling a parliamentary group of 5 deputies, including another minority, to Serbia's Parliament. Then we'll start bringing in the quality we've been looking for for for many years, if not decades-ex1>, Arifi said.

Shaip Kamberi, chairman of the Bujanovac municipality, from the ranks of the Party for Democratic Action, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says Albanians in the Presevo Valley currently have only one seat in Serbia's Parliament. In earlier legislatures of this state, according to him, there have been other Albanian, but few, and who, in addition to senbilising the problems of Albanians, have failed to impose any solution for those problems due to the lack of democratic capacities in Serbia.

This time around, when the opposition in Serbia is expected to boycott the elections, when it is expected that talks between Kosovo and Serbia will continue after the government is established in Pristina, we think and that was also the idea of Tirana that strengthening the political voice of Albanians in parliament will be of importance and a weight of representation of our problems there. This, in order to force -- primarily Belgrade -- by asking for help from the international community, and certainly Tirana and Pristina, for these problems to get the top of the solution because a hopeless situation has been created here in the Presevo Valley of”, Camberi stressed.

The recogniser of political developments in Kosovo, Armend Muja, tells Radio Free Europe, that the agreement reached among political parties in the Presevo Valley for unifying an election list for participation in parliamentary elections in Serbia is an effort in the right direction, which is likely to be concrete.

I see this as an effort, in the continuation of a series of efforts that have been, as in the political Corps of Albanians in Montenegro earlier and later, even in Bujanoc, Presevo and Medvedja. However, for a change from Montenegro, where the Albanian factor is often determining, here their influence, however, will take into account their small extension into the electoral body, will be small. However, the important thing is like the platform of unifying key national positions regarding their rights in the Valley, and I think this is an important” initiative, Muja said.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci has welcomed the Albanians' Presevo Valley Agreement. He has said he welcomes “the agreement on creating a unified electoral list of Albanian parties in the Presevo Valley as an important tool for political empowering and protecting national interests”.

In the parliamentary elections in Serbia, in 2016, the political parties of Albanians living in Serbia, except for the Party of Democratic Action, did not participate in the election race because of what they had claimed -- dissatisfaction with the Serbian authorities' attitude towards Albanians in Serbia.

In Serbia's Parliament, which has 250 deputies, Ardita Sinani was elected as the only Albanian representative.