Unlike the last parliamentary elections three years ago, when the political representatives of the Serbs appeared jointly in elections, in the scheduled elections on June 11, will participate six Serbian lists, or five political parties and one coalition. Does this means that the Serbs are no longer united, or their separate functioning is going to have a greater political impact?
Among the candidates for early parliamentary elections on June 11 are the Serbian List, Progressive Democratic Party, the Independent Liberal Party, the Serbian Patriotic Alliance, Progressive force of Kosovo and one coalition, which includes the Party of Kosovo Serbs of Aleksandar Jablanović. Citizens are divided on whether the separate appearances of Serbian political representatives in the elections are in favour the Serbian community in Kosovo.
“More options may be a good thing, let the people have their say so we’ll see how it will be,” said the resident of Gracanica.
“Everyone is here because of the position and self-interest, the best is not to go to the polls,” said the other resident of Gracanica.
Political scientist Stefan Filipović believes that the unique functioning of the Serb representatives may have greater influence on issues that concern Serbs in Kosovo.
Filipović points out that political pluralism in itself is positive, however, as emphasized, the problem arises in relations among Serbs representatives.
“The main problem within the Serbian community is that they are not separate political options in different columns than is being established confrontational atmosphere, what is even worse and this is the most negative consequence,” said Filipović.
Key points of contention between political parties, in the opinion of Dragoljub Petrović, editor in chief of Belgrade daily “Danas” are money and interest.
“This is a proof of the traditional Serbian discord that always occurs when there is a possibility of some power and some money. I heard that all the lists will get one impressive amount of money and on the other hand, later they will be able to trade with their mandates,” said Petrović.
Petrović adds that concerning the fact that they cannot find a common interest, only Belgrade can affect unique functioning of the Serbs, but that’s not the ideal solution.
“First of all, Serbs in Kosovo have to agree what is their common interest, but otherwise Serbs cannot agree on what is a common interest, especially in the moments when it happens that there is dissatisfaction of a part of Serbs with what was agreed in Brussels. And on the other hand, the last elections in Kosovo show that Serbs can be united only with some directive from Belgrade, which is blackmailing towards some representatives of the Serbs,” concludes Petrović.
