The opposition bloc, consisting of the Vetevendosje Movement, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK) and Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA), issued a joint statement on today’s events at the Kosovo Assembly.

“The Government of the Republic of Kosovo is ruining and bankrupting the state, by formalizing and legalizing Serbia’s power within the territory and institutions of Kosovo. This will destroy the Republic, the sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the wellbeing of the people. No one has the mandate or right to return Serbia to Kosovo. We will not allow this to happen.

The Vetevendosje Movement parliamentary group chief, Glauk Konjufca, said that throwing the teargas in today’s session of the Assembly was a democratic act and that all actions by the opposition were aimed at stopping the adoption of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities. “We want to block the work of the Kosovo Assembly … I think this [the teargas] did well to the LDK MPs … This is a democratic act.

Kosovo’s Minister for Dialogue, Edita Tahiri, told Kosovapress today that Serbia on the one hand is working on the implementation of the Brussels agreement but that on the other hand it continues to support its illegal parallel structures in Kosovo. Tahiri said the Serbian Government on Wednesday made new appointments for parallel structures operating in the municipality of Leposavic. “This once again proves Serbia’s destructive approach,” she said.

The Vetevendosje Movement announced on Monday that  it has so far collected over 160,000 signatures against the formation of the Association/Community of Serb-majority municipalities and the border demarcation agreement with Montenegro. According to Vetevendosje, citizens from all political parties, including those who voted for the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), are signing the petition. Vetevendosje also said the petition would continue until 200,000 signatures are collected and then they will organize protests.

In an interview for Deutsche Welle, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister and one of Serbian List leaders, Branimir Stojanovic, said an important step in the formation of the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities is the approval of its statute. This, according to Stojanovic, will have to be agreed at a high political level. “The Association/Community and its competencies will not undermine Albanians and their lives,” said Stojanovic. He added that once the Association/Community is up and running, Kosovo Serbs will become more self-assured and cooperate more with the others.

Representatives of the Vetevendosje movement, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo (AAK), and Initiative for Kosovo (NISMA), held today a press conference at “Mother Teresa” square, where they informed that 101 thousand and 672 Kosovo people signed the petition against establishment of the Association of the Municipalities with Serb majority and demarcation of the border with Montenegro.

The paper writes in its editorial today that while still in opposition, the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) Isa Mustafa pledged to reassess the entire process of Pristina-Belgrade dialogue once in power but when he actually got into office his words were taken away by the wind. In fact, Mustafa easily adapted to the situation prepared by his predecessor, Hashim Thaci.

KTV’s editor-in-chief Adriatik Kelmendi writes that the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities is not a product of Serbs but of Albanians and the international community because the Albanians, as a majority community in Kosovo, failed in providing convincing arguments for the minority communities to accept the new reality and look to Pristina instead of elsewhere. Immediately after the conflict, when Albanians gained some powers in Kosovo, they failed to behave as leaders of a modern society which assumes responsibility for all its people, says Kelmendi.

Publicist Halil Matoshi says there is a “massive paranoia” in Kosovo right now with people worrying not about what the Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities means legally today but what it may mean tomorrow in its implementation stage.

Group for Legal and Political Studies (GLPS) think thank said today in a statement that Pristina-Belgrade agreement on Association/Community of Serb majority municipalities affects issues of structural importance to Kosovo and its multiethnic values.  GLPS recalled that Kosovo was built on the principles of a constitutional democracy and thus reflects a deeply European model of a multiethnic country.