Why did the Serbian government fire him, Eagle Arifi?

A political crisis erupted again in a municipality in southern Serbia inhabited by Albanian majority.

Until local elections, Presevo will be managed by the Acting Authority appointed by the Government of Serbia, after it dissolved the local Assembly.

With the distribution of the Assembly, both the mayor and other members of the local government have completed the mandate.

The last mayor of the Presevo municipality, Shqirim Arifi, has accused authorities in Belgrade of violent “extrem” and discrimination of Albanians.

“The method of selecting the Acting Authority is totally illegal and unconstitutional”, the Albanian cabinet's written response to Free Europe Radio (REL) says.

The Alternative Party for Change, from which Arifi comes, had a majority in the Presevo Municipal Assembly, which has a total of 38 delegates.

On the other hand, Ragmi Mustafa, who has been appointed by the government of Serbia for chairman of the Acting Authority, says the local Assembly has not gathered since July 2023 and that this has been the reason for its breakup.

The previous “Coalation assembled around the Alternative to Change Shqip Arifi lost most in the Assembly and for nine months cannot call any session”, Ragmi Mustafa said for Radio Free Europe.

He is the leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (PDSH), which was the second largest in the local Assembly.

This is the third time the Government of Serbia appoints the Acting Authority to lead Presevo in the past seven years.

During these seven years these will be the fourth local elections.
The vote should be held on 2 June, when, apart from Belgrade, it should be voted in more than 80 cities and municipalities.

The Presevo municipality has more than 33,000 inhabitants, and half of the 611,000 Albanians registered live in Serbia.

They are also represented in Bujanoc and Medvedja, two municipalities in the south that are part of what is known as the Presevo Valley.

In recent years, the Alternative to Change of Arif and Shaip Kamberi's Party for Democratic Action, currently the only Albanian representative in the republican Parliament, have been in power in Presevo.

What did the government of Serbia decide?

In the decision to distribute the Presevo Assembly, adopted on April 18th, the government of Serbia referred to the Local Self-Government Law article, which says the local assembly can be distributed unless more than three months are met.

With the Government's decision, five members of the Acting Authority have been appointed, while the law orders that representatives of parties represented in the distributed Assembly be elected “given the political and national composition”.

In addition to President Ragmi Mustafa, Tefik Bajrami from the DPA is also in the body, leader of the Sami Salihu Reform Movement, Shqim Veli from the Party for Democratic Action and Branko Trajkovic from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

In the disbanded Presevo Assembly, 36 delegates were from Albanian parties and two from the coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party.

The municipality's former head's office, Shqirim Arifi, has accused advisers from the Progressive Party that they have not been submitted to the last session of the previous Assembly in October “without any notification or explanation”, after which the Alternative for Change has lost the majority.

Branko Trajkovic of the SNS was unable to comment on REL to the publication of this text, then, why didn't they support past power in Presevo?

Ragmi Mustafa stresses that the question for official Belgrade is why the Acting Authority was not formed earlier.

“We have not been able to influence more than to show the embassies and Minister of State Administration and Local Self-government that the election proclamation and distribution of the Assembly” are needed, he adds.

Why did the Assembly spread out now?

The government of Serbia, the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government and the Co-ordination Body for Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja did not respond to Shqim Arifi's allegations of “illegal and violent deregulation” from the position of Presevo leader and discrimination against Albanians.

The question of why the formation of the Acting Authority was expected is also unanswered.

It would be difficult to say that the municipality is out of sight of Belgrade, if there is already a government Co-ordination Corps for Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja. That organ should initially raise the alarm that things are not okay and that governance is not functioning”, says Aleksandar Popov from the Centre for Regionalism.

The co-ordination body for Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja was founded more than 20 years ago, after the police conflict and the army with the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc (UÇMB).

Conflicts erupted after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement in June 1999, which ended the war in Kosovo. Armed clashes in southern Serbia lasted until May 2001.

The co-ordination body has had to help calm interethnic tensions and normalise life in the Presevo Valley.

The founding act envisions the state focusing on accelerated economic empowerment and political and social integration in all three municipalities.

Differences between Albanian parties

For his dismissal, besides authorities in Belgrade, Shqirim Arifi blamed several Albanian political representatives in the Presevo Valley.

In a Facebook post on April 20th, he accused them of becoming a simple <x0 tool for (Serbian President Aleksandar) Vucinqicin and Serbia to realise its anti-Albanian agenda”.

Ragmi Mustafa calls “demagogi and fiction” Arifi's accusations against Albanian political representatives.

“When appointed by power in Belgrade is perfectly normal and when not appointed, makes accusations and absolutely low blows against other politicians”, Mustafa says.

Serbia's government had named the Acting Authority in Presevo in 2017 and 2020, and was later appointed as Albania Arifi.

The parties that make up the Communist Parliament have the right to propose to the Government their candidates for the Acting Authority.

The Arifi Change Alternative, as stated in the REL response, has this time refused.

Because nothing was going on the official road, names (of candidates) were requested through Viberi urgently. The competent ministry has not attended at all, unlike the last time they were written and provided legal deadlines for each party to propose a name for the Acting Authority”, the party adds.

Due to disagreements among Albanian political parties, local power in Presevo has been unstable for several years, remembers Aleksandar Popov from the Centre for Regionalism.

The conflict between Shqip Arifi and other Albanian politicians has long been ongoing. Arifi was considered a politician who has good relations with Belgrade. Of course, there has now been a loss of”, he added.

Popov, also, stresses that Belgrade's old <x0 selector” is to create disagreements among the political representatives of a community.

I would not be surprised if there were any of those games, the particles of contention between the Albanian political representatives, were to deteriorate the situation in that local self-government, if there were no common harmony and performance of Albanian representatives in the south”, Popov noted.

“Vuchiqi”

The Arif pronunciation in a Facebook post on April 20th has said that its dismissal came after “the recent public threat of Vuchiqi”.

On April 14th, Serbia's president announced that anyone who violates the country's constitutional order would be arrested and prosecuted “.

“All of you who violate Serbia's constitutional order, all of you who participate in it in any way, with protests, demonstrations, in any way you will answer for it, will respond to all Albanians who participate in it “, Vuciq said.

Three days later, on April 17th, Kosovo Deputy Director of Police Dejan Jankovic and four Kosovo police officers were detained at the border points with Serbia.

Serbian police have indicated that they have been sent to the maintenance for “security control”.

Jankovic was detained up to 48 hours, while Kosovo Interior Minister Jalal Svecla said Jankovic was in custody under “charges of overturning Serbia's constitutional order”.

On April 17th, according to Kosovo authorities, Serbia has kept over 1400 Kosovo citizens at border crossings for more than 20 hours.

The Kosovo government named these actions as Serbia's revenge for the support the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe granted for Kosovo's membership in the organisation.

Serbia denied these accusations, saying delays at the border were caused by additional security measures and that the movement of Kosovo citizens “is not limited”.

The European Union and the US State Department reacted to the arrests.

The State Department called on Serbia to refrain from unilateral and uncoordinated actions and fully respect agreements reached within the EU-brokered dialogue.

Punishment for setting up Albanian flag

Eagle Arifi linked his dismissal to the court's decision in Vranje, which ordered him and the Alternative Party for Change to pay a fine of 470 euros for placing the Albanian flag at the party object in Bujanoc on 27 November 2022, a day before Albania's Independence anniversary.

The decision said that he and his party were found guilty after, on November 27, 2022, “displayed the flag of a foreign state, Albania, and did not display the Serbian flag”.

With that, the court said, Arifi and his party have violated the law regulating the use of the flag and other national symbols of Serbia.

Serbia's government did not answer even REL questions on Arifi's allegations.
It is not the first time that political representatives of Albanians are convicted of setting up the Albanian flag.

“

Serbian authorities have signed three agreements on the integration of Albanians from the Presevo Valley into Serbia's state institutions in 2001, 2009 and 2013.

They relate mainly to the exercise of collective rights and continued integration into institutions such as police, judiciary and education.

However, Albanians from the south have often accused official Belgrade of violating their rights, for example, English - language texts lack Or for passive addresses, the removal of citizens from the address in which they were registered.

The “has long been dissatisfied with the authorities' attitude towards Albanians, that carelessness reigns, that development is not considered”, Popov adds.

In the elections of the Republic of December 2023, Albanians appeared in two columns.

The Party of Democratic Action led by Shaip Kamberi has passed the election threshold and won a mandate, while the list led by Shqirim Arifi has remained without representatives in Serbia's Assembly.

No national minority is guaranteed parliamentary mandate, but they have a lower percentage threshold in the elections, allowing them to enter the Assembly more easily.

According to census data, Albanians are the fourth minority according to size in Serbia.