Brussels knows which side is blocking dialogue - Vucic tells Politico

BRUSSELS - Even though people in Brussels know which side is blocking progress in the EU-facilitated Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, they "would never say that publicly," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has told Brussels-based internet portal Politico.eu.

"The EU and the Americans agree with us," Vucic said in an interview.

The portal notes that Vucic has recently called for new local elections in four Serb-majority municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Metohija, and adds that, "despite the absence of a clear democratic mandate," Pristina's PM Albin Kurti has "encouraged" ethnic Albanian politicians to take office following the 2023 municipal elections that were largely boycotted by the local Serb population and "dispatched special police units to protect them, triggering a crisis that has inflamed passions on both sides."

The portal said that, after Kurti accused him of "irrationality," "desperation" and of pursuing an "aggressive campaign for new conflicts," Vucic had responded in the interview as follows:

"If irrationality and aggression is to have democratic elections... OK, many thanks to him."

"I don’t want to participate in an anti-Kurti campaign or an ad-hominem campaign against anyone," Vucic said, adding that the Pristina authorities "appeared to be obsessed with him."

"If you read what they say every day, it’s always Vucic, Vucic, Vucic," he said.

Politico.eu said that, over the last month, the Pristina authorities had sent in police forces to shut down and take over the buildings of Serbian institutions in the north of Kosovska Mitrovica, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, "a region with a population of about 80,000, most of them Serbs."

"Pristina’s latest moves provoked protests and claims that the Kosovo government was set on 'ethnically cleansing' Serbs from the areas where they form a majority," it said.