Serbia’s Vucic to head to Brussels after north Kosovo elections

President Aleksandar Vučić said he would go to Brussels on 2 May to continue talks about normalising relations with Kosovo, following elections in the Serb-majority municipalities of northern Kosovo that were plagued by a historically low turnout.

A total of 19 polling stations were opened in North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic, though of about 45,000 eligible voters, only 1,567 people cast a ballot, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

“The Serbian people have shown that they are looking for a completely different approach from the international community, respect, real dialogue, and not the imposition of solutions,” said Vučić.

“There were 45,095 people on the voter list, and a total of 13 Serbs came out, and of those, two came out by mistake, that’s 0.029%. A significantly smaller number of Albanians also came out. Not a single person voted at several polling stations. In total, 449 Albanians voted, and a good part of them do not live there,” the president said without providing evidence for his claims.

“This showed the enormous unity of the Serbian people. They wanted to show that we are here, but we don’t want to participate in your circus,” said Vučić, who pointed to what he called a political uprising of the Serbian people in Kosovo, who will not tolerate oppression.

Speaking of how the elections were carried out, he criticised OSCE for not monitoring them and noted that EU and Quint offices did not have time to visit the polling stations.

“Apparently, Kurti thinks he can manage 400 votes. Stano [EU Delegation head] said to speed up the dialogue. We want our voice to be heard, and you won’t be able to work without us. The fact is that none of the Serbs wants to return to the institutions,” said Vučić.

Vucic announced that he will head to Brussels on 2 May although he is not optimistic of the outcome.

“We have a difficult period ahead of us. There is no need for any conflict with NATO. Of course, nothing will be resolved on 2 May. We will protect the position of our people and the Constitution of Serbia, and we will insist on a real dialogue. We need a real conversation with the Albanians,” concluded Vučić.

(Tamara Milošević Grbić / EURACTIV.rs)