Hashim Thaci on Monday called elections for mayors of four Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija. For now, Serbia has not reacted, while the Serb List expects consultations with the President Aleksandar Vucic tomorrow, Serbian media report.
Journalist Milivoje Mihajlovic thinks that by calling these elections, Thaci expects this to cause unrest – a spiral of protests and violence in the north of the southern Serbian province.
He observed that the opinion of the political leadership of Serbia is not known, and whether they are surprised by Thaci’s decision, because there has been no reaction. “The move from Pristina is not one-sided, nor does it have only one goal. By calling mayors’ elections in the north, Thaci may have begun a process of disturbance in Kosovo and Metohija,” Mihajlovic believes.
He added that Thaci has a justification for such a political move because these municipalities have not been functioning since November 27, when municipal presidents resigned (after Pristina increased taxes on goods from central Serbia by 100 percent) – “but he did not make the move to refresh the democratic process in Kosovo, but rather to put the ball in the North’s court.”
“The first reaction from Serbia may be advice to the Serb List, which conducts the Serbs’ policy in Kosovo and Metohija to participate in the elections or to boycott,” Mihajlovic said, adding that both options have their own good and bad sides.
He said he was “personally always in favor of Serbs going to the polls, because their survival will be more successful if they are in the institutions.”
“Serbs do not have to recognize Kosovo. If they boycotted the elections, there would probably be another raid in northern Kosovo. Thaci is trying to put the ball in the court of the North at any cost,” Mihajlovic said, adding that with this move, Thaci was “solving several of his problems, ‘the Kosovo spring’ that the opposition has been announcing, and drawing attention away from the taxes.”
