The newly formed coalition of Kosovo’s Serbs will go to the polls on 6 October and participate in an unequal and difficult battle, writes Belgrade based daily Danas.
President of the European Movement of Serbs from Kosovo and member of the newly formed coalition, Rada Trajkovic, told Danas that the Serbian List has already begun campaigning against this newly formed coalition, but that it nonetheless expects solid results.
– I believe that the Serbian people in Kosovo, although fearful, will not vote for the faces of Serbia embodied in Milan Radoicic and Goran Rakic, mayor of northern Mitrovica – says Trajkovic.
In addition to Trajkovic, members of this broader coalition are Slavisa Petkovic, Nenad Rasic, Dragisa Miric and Branislav Markovic, daily reports and adds that the coalition has no official name yet.
In this coalition, they say that an agreement has been reached and that this list will be a coalition list of almost all political entities in Kosovo, except the Serbian List. They point out that the Serb people in Kosovo need an alternative and that they have been forced to unite because of the Serbian List.
Trajkovic said the Kosovo Serbs fear for their safety, their property and that they do not have the right to their own views.
“They have become afraid especially after the murder of (opposition leader) Oliver Ivanovic,” she said, adding that the Serbian List launched a campaign against her coalition just days after it was formed.
”I respect the critical opinions of anyone with the quality to criticize, and from whose critiques you will derive worthiness and lessons, but the criticism of such people, led by Mr. Vucic, only speaks of our quality.”
Nenad Rasic, a former minister for labour and social care in the Kosovo government, says he expects the Serbian List to use all official and unofficial forms of struggle, devoid of all moral values, in the anti-campaign against the new coalition.
Commenting on the statement by the Director of the Office for the KiM, Marko Djuric, that the monolithic nature of the Serbian List is most needed at the moment, Rasic points out that what Djuric is seeking is not unity, but unanimity.
“Unity is exactly what we did. Gathering of different parties. We create unity of different people with different options in order to make a venture and oppose the Serbian List, which Djuric himself claims to be an important instrument of Belgrade. This election is a referendum for us whether we will remain in Kosovo. If Vucic and Thaci agree, and redraw of borders occur, it will mean an absolute exodus for us Serbs, especially for those of us who live in southern Kosovo,” Rasic points out.
Rasic asks why it is kept confidential that the number of students enrolled in first grade in Kosovo is 10 percent less, daily writes.
