KTV editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi writes that due to upcoming elections, Kosovars and their political representatives don’t seem interested in elections for the European Parliament, “in which European voters, like never before, chose to vote for hardline parties some of which even have racist policies”. Kelmendi notes that the result of these elections may bring about major shifts in the policies of the European Union and that they will affect Kosovo too.

Sylejman Selimi, Nexhat Qubreli, Ismet Haxha and Shefki Hyseni have been acquitted of all charges. The presiding judge said it was not established beyond a reasonable doubt whether the accused, as former KLA members, committed war crimes.

Selimi, Qubreli, Haxha and Hyseni were accused of war crimes that are alleged to have been carried out in 1998 in the Mitrovica region.

The paper reports on the front page that while Albanian political parties south of the Ibër/Ibar River have officially started their election campaigns, the Serb-inhabited northern municipalities have decided to do the opposite by stopping their electoral activities. Serbs are claiming that “decisions made by the Central Election Commission (CEC) are violating the law and rights of minority communities”. Northern Serbs say that the CEC decision to appoint voting center councils was not in accordance with the ethnic structure of the northern municipalities.

The Government of Serbia has allocated €33,000 to fund pre-elementary schools in ten Serb-inhabited municipalities in Kosovo, despite the international agreement signed by Pristina and Belgrade to dissolve Serb parallel structures in Kosovo. Government officials in Pristina said they had not been informed about this. They said they would complain to Brussels about Belgrade’s action.

Publicist Veton Surroi said in an interview for KTV on Wednesday that another governing mandate for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) would be suicide for Kosovo. “It would break the country’s back and it would prevent further development,” he said. Surroi argued that talks in Brussels were held in order to bring Serbia, and not Kosovo, closer to the European Union. “There can be no Stabilization and Association Agreement for Kosovo if the latter is not recognized by all EU member states.

Political analyst Halil Matoshi argues in an opinion piece that “with individuals escaping and negotiating justice and the state seized by a criminal organization, Kosovo is on the verge of the abyss – the failure of the state. The publication of reports prepared by NATO and Swiss intelligence services, at this time, is a strong message that democracies that supported Kosovo’s freedom don’t want a state seized by criminal-mafia structures, but rather a state in the hands of the people of Kosovo who should be left free to build credible and accountable institutions”.