Branimir Stojanovic, Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo, said today during a meeting with some journalists, who were attacked on Saturday during a protest in Pristina, that he will do everything through legal mechanisms to stop these attacks on journalists.

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic says that Pristina authorities and the international community have understood the message when Serbian MPs left the session of the Assembly. Therefore, Stojanović expects that "some things will be changed and that relationship in the future will be a quite different." 

Although the budget for next year has been already passed, Kosovo's deputy prime minister expects that legal options for increasing the money allocation for ministries and municipalities run by Serbs will be found. 

‘Hot potato’ in the hands of Serbian representatives in the Kosovo government will undoubtedly be forming of the so-called Army of Kosovo, the issue posed by their coalition partners Isa Mustafa and Hashim Thaci. According to Branimir Stojanovic, Deputy Prime Minister of the provisional institutions, the address on which will be discussed the issue is - Brussels.

The newly elected Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo Branimir Stojanovic and the new Minister for Local Self-Government of Kosovo Ljubomir Maric officially took over their duties from Slobodan Petrovic, who performed both duties in the previous term.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Self-Government in Kosovo, Slobodan Petrovic addressed the press after the handover while the new members of the Kosovo government Branimir Stojanovic and Ljubomir Maric have said that they would do it after getting acquainted with their ministries.

For the Serbs is all the same who is at the head of the Government. We'll see what would be the new prime minister's position towards problems that we have. What is certain is that it will not be easy, because the Serbs and Albanians have drastically different views on the situation and the solutions that need to be found.

"If we estimate that we cannot achieve the basic interests and that we cannot change what is the most important for us, we will certainly leave the government. But let's give these people a chance and let’s see if they are sincere when they say that they want Serbs in Kosovo", said Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic.

Community/Association of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo shall be established for three to five months, said the vice president of the Kosovo government Branimir Stojanovic.

Question of Community/Association of Serbian municipalities should be solved. He said that a deadline was set by the Serbian List in the coalition agreement that was signed with the Democratic Party of Kosovo and the Democratic League of Kosovo.

Stojanovic said that it remains to agree on the statute of the Community/Association at the highest level possible, because it will define its powers.

“My priority will be implementation of the agreement that Belgrade and Pristina reached in Brussels and the formation of Community of Serbian municipalities (ZSO),” says Branimir Stojanovic, new Deputy Prime Minister of Kosovo. In a first interview after appointment for the Deputy PM, Stojanović says that the joint participation of all relevant Serbian factors will be the key to success, since so far they functioned separately.

In addition to the ZSO, which problems will be in your focus?

Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Branimir Stojanovic says that representatives of the Srpska will not serve as "decoration" in the Pristina authorities and would withdraw from the government if that happens.

"Ahead of us is complete and ruthless struggle for Serbian interests. The first time that all Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija entered uniquely, if once we start serving as a decor or form, I will leave the government," said Stojanovic.