Sasa Dragojlo and Perparim IsufiBelgradeBIRNDecember 2, 202213:41Kurti’s appointment of a Serbian minister without the consent of the main Serbian Party in Kosovo has drawn rage from top state officials, with the President calling the Kosovo PM ‘scum’.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) consults with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic (L) in Belgrade, Serbia, 16 January 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic condemned the decision by her Kosovo counterpart Albin Kurti to appoint the president of the Progressive Democratic Party, Nenad Rasic, as Minister for Communities and Returns in the Kosovo government, while President Vucic called the Kosovo PM “terrorist scum”.
The appointment follows the mass resignation of Kosovo Serb officials in a dispute over Serbia-issued licence plates.
Brnabic said the appointment was non-democratic and went against the Brussels Agreement, as hardly anyone voted for Rasic in the last elections.
“The appointment of Rasic is not only in contradiction with the Brussels Agreement but also with the will of the people expressed in the elections, which is the most important will,” said Brnabic.
She also condemned the EU’s mild reaction. “This kind of reaction is a shame for the EU. We were waiting to see what the Union would say about the appointment of Rašić and we received another shameful statement,” she said.
Kurti appointed Progressive Democratic Party head Rasic as Minister for Communities and Returns while and opposition politician Rada Trajkovic, a harsh critic of the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party, as Rasic’s advisor.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said that Pristina must respect all the necessary steps when appointing ministers representing the non-majority communities.
“We call on both sides to work urgently on the return of Kosovo Serbs to all Kosovo institutions, in accordance with the binding agreements on dialogue, and all interested parties to refrain from any action that would lead to an increase in tensions in the already fragile security situation,” he said.
But Brnabic said that, “after such a shameful statement by the EU”, Serbia would not participate in the Western Balkans Summit due on December 6 in Tirana.
“Either the EU starts respecting the values it propagates, or there is no longer a need for Serbia to participate in this kind of farce. I ask again – after 10 years, Pristina did not implement the Brussels Agreement of which the EU is the guarantor, after Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija were denied the right to vote this year twice, to which the EU reacted with one sentence in the Progress Report, and after that Pristina, by appointing Rasic, continues to ignore the clearly expressed will of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija”.
“So I ask the EU – where are these European values, where is democracy, where does the rule of law disappear?” Brnabic said.
Kurti’s decision also drew a furious reaction from Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who called Kurti “terrorist scum” and Rada Trajkovic, who was appointed Rasic’s advisor, “Serbian scum from the bottom of the barrel”.
“The election of Rasic, a man who won less than 1 per cent, as well as Rade Trajkovic, who was on his list, shows that they want the persecution, expulsion and disappearance of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija,” Vucic said.
Reacting to the Serbian officials’ insults, Rada Trajkovic called them “hysteria”.
President Vucic “appointed 28 ministers of the Government of Serbia according to his will and desire, but precisely because of that one minister in the Government of Kosovo whom he did not choose and whom he does not control – complete hysteria,” Trajkovic commented on Twitter.
In Pristina, Vucic’s abusive comments drew angry reactions. Jeton Zulfaj, an adviser to Prime Minister Kurti, said this language “suits a former Minister of Milosevic” in a reference to Vucic’s past as a Minister under Slobodan Milosevic’s regime during the war in Kosovo in 1998-99.
“He also cancelled participation in the EU-WB Summit in Tirana. Wonder why? Because the Declaration condemns Russian aggression on Ukraine,” Zulfaj said on Twitter.
Vlora Citaku, deputy head of the opposition Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, also called Vucic’s comments unacceptable.
“I am in the opposition and I work to beat [the ruling party] Vetevendosje in the next elections. There are way too many things I disagree with them. But to have President of Serbia referring to Kosovo’s PM Kurti as ‘terrorist scum’, is unacceptable and disgusting,” Citaku said on Twitter.
Vucic’s opponents in Serbia criticized the wording of his attacks against ethnic Serb opposition politicians appointed by Kurti, claiming that the same smear campaign was conducted against Oliver Ivanovic, a Kosovo Serb opposition leader, assassinated in 2018, before his murder.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
