Belgrade-based daily Danas writes that West does not trust the opposition in Serbia would conclude the agreement with Kosovo, because of Dveri Movement, which is a member of the Alliance for Serbia (SzS), while other members of the Alliance “have no clear responses and attitudes in relation to the recognition of Kosovo independence.”
This is according to the daily’s interlocutors, including Western diplomats who commented on recent visits of European Parliament delegation to Belgrade and Pristina. Commenting on the statement of EP Rapporteur for Serbia David McAllister that institutions in Brussels are worried over the manner in which the Serbian National Assembly functions and his advise to the Serbian opposition to return to the Parliament, sources told Danas “it seems the West cares about freedom of media, fair elections, human rights and democracy, much less than it cares about signing of the Belgrade-Pristina agreement.”
“Given mentioned reasons Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic still enjoys the support of the West. US and EU believe Vucic is cooperative and guarantees the continuation of the talks, respectively reaching a sustainable solution in Belgrade-Pristina relations,” diplomats told Danas.
The daily recalled the statement of the European Commission Spokeswoman Maja Kocijanic who commenting on the protests taking place in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia said, “there is no Balkan spring” adding “that protests in each country have their peculiarities and I would not compare that situation.”
Diplomats noted this comes as no surprise given that the EU is currently focused on the elections for the European Parliament and has no time to deal in detail with current events in the Western Balkans, including the situation in Serbia.
They also noted President Vucic “has no reason whatsoever” to be disappointed in leading Western states, including Germany. President Vucic earlier stated he is disappointed with the German head of diplomacy Heiko Maas statement that Berlin would continue to support Kosovo and reforms it implements.
Some diplomatic representatives opined that Vucic is angry at Germany because official Berlin resolutely opposes change of borders as a possible solution to the Kosovo issue.
Meanwhile, Danas sources from Pristina claim an extraordinary elections in Kosovo became a more realistic option, given that Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is persistent “to keep the tariffs in force,” despite harsh criticism from the US. Kosovo Albanians are aware “Kosovo can neither progress democratically nor economically without support from Washington, therefore Haradinaj would at the end either change his firm stance on the tariffs or his government would collapse,” Danas concluded.
