The Serb List ignored an invitation for a debate attended by other Kosovo Serb parties at the start of the campaign for the October 6 parliamentary elections.

All three Kosovo Serb parties and one coalition were invited to the debate in Caglavica. Officials of the Freedom (Sloboda) coalition, Party of Kosovo Serbs and Serb Liberal Party showed up for the debate. The Serb List which has the support of official Belgrade did not show up.

Freedom coalition official Nenad Rasic called for more unity among the Kosovo Serbs, adding that institutional activities are the first step towards that goal. “We will initiate a dialogue among the Kosovo Serbs after the elections,” he said.

Party of Kosovo Serbs leader Aleksandar Jablanovic said his party’s priority is the survival of the Serbs in Kosovo along with a fight against crime and corruption. “Our party’s first job after the elections is to deal with criminals and corruption in our ranks because the institutions in Serb communities have been trapped by criminal structures who decide on everything,” he said.

Any ethnic division is a disaster, especially for the Serbs south of the Ibar river, the Serb Liberal Party’s Slobodan Petrovic said and recalled that two thirds of the Kosovo Serbs live there and just one third live in the north of Kosovo.

All three said the Serb List campaign is waging an aggressive campaign using what they said are criminal methods.

The debate in Caglavica drew a reaction from Serbian government Office for Kosovo chief Marko Djuric who said that the gathering was a call for sobriety to all the Kosovo Serbs, adding that the Kosovo Serb politicians’ who aren’t part of the Serb List are directing their campaign against President Aleksandar Vucic.