Analyst from Pristina Azem Vlasi claims that convincing victory of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) at parliamentary elections in Serbia will increase ambitions of Serbia toward Kosovo.
‘The fact that Aleksandar Vučić’s party has appeared stronger at last elections will surely influence on increased ambitions toward Kosovo in order to maintain a populist and nationalistic course,” said Vlasi to Koha Ditore.
According to Vlasi, that means that there will be new requests and that Serbia will request to be even more engaged in Kosovo issues. Vlasi is not expecting that pace of the so far dialogue will be maintained in future between two prime ministers. “I don’t believe that there will be meaningful talks until May, since Vučić’s priority will be the creation of government, for what he needs time until early May. It was announced that Serbia will form the government until 1 May. At the same time Kosovo will start preparations for elections during that period. I don’t believe that Catherine Ashton will exert any pressure on new prime minister of Serbia and incumbent prime minister of Kosovo to discuss any of difficult topics,” opines Vlasi and adds that Kosovo has no interest in accelerating the continuation of this talks.
Vlasi claims that Kosovo should not allow extension of topics which are discussed and direct involvement of Serbia in internal affairs of Kosovo. He deems that best solution would be if Kosovo side would slow down the pace of so far discussions.
“Agreement is reached over the key subjects. It would be wise now to insist on implementation of the so far reached agreements. All relations with Serbia should now be dropped to a lower level, to common communication lines and mutual communication of various departments, but not at the level of prime ministers,” explained Vlasi.
He also assessed that populism and nationalism are in the political discourse of the SNS, thus he deems that Vučić will strive to present himself as stronger protectionist of Serbs than the leader of the Socialist Party of Serbia Ivica Dačić. “From that reason Kosovo side should not allow dialogue to turn into a never-ending process,” concluded Vlasi.
