Kurti-Serbs: Do not protest, circumstances

I call on Kosovo Serb citizens not to organise and participate in such protests”, Kurti said at a press conference Monday.

“I'm the major protest organiser from my past, but believe that with competence, not only from experience, but also from the political circumstances we are in, geopolitical, security protests are not the right way forward. My office is open to all complaints about any violation of rights”, Kurti said.

According to Kurti, this does not contribute to good relations between Kosovo and Serbia, as Kosovo wants, and as the European Union requires.

On Tuesday, Serbian List deputy chairman Dalybor Yevtic, simultaneously during a joint conference with Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has said Serbs will protest in southern and northern Ibër on Friday over Serbia's failure to hold elections in Kosovo.

Prime Minister Kurti said the Kosovo government has not decided that Serbian elections will not be held in Kosovo.

He said he has demanded that Kosovo and Serbia reach an agreement on holding these elections.

“I would not say that the government has made the decision not to hold Serbia's elections in Kosovo, but the truth is there is no preliminary agreement, of course it represents the condition for holding those elections, which the condition has not been met. We've expected normal exchange of letters Their request, of our treatment, but this didn't happen”, Kurt said.

Kurti added that the agreement on holding Serbia's elections in Kosovo should be through the exchange of letters between Government of Kosovo and the Government of Serbia.

We are the authorities of the respective countries that would have to be informed so that those elections could be held. As it is, the case has taken over from”, Kurti said.

Meanwhile, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has said on March 22nd that Kosovo has demanded that the Government of Serbia directly ask the Government of Kosovo to allow presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on April 3rd, or “that Serbia accept Kosovo”.

He has added that Serbia will not do that and has said Kosovo Serbs will vote in Serbia on April 3rd.

International Community It has repeatedly called on the Kosovo government to find ways to hold Serbian elections.

The last parliamentary elections, which Serbia has also organised for the Serb community in Kosovo, have been those on 21 June 2020.

Those elections are held according to an earlier practice, where the Kosovo Security and Co-operation Organisation of Europe mission has collected votes. Those votes were later counted in Rashka and Vranje, two border towns in Serbia.

This practice has been in place since 2017, and Kosovo authorities have allowed it. / REL