Why does Kosovo have a significant place in the election campaign but not on the electoral lists?

The Kosovo issue is—whether by inertia, genuine attachment, or under the pressure of geopolitical circumstances—again one of the cornerstones of the election campaign. However, there are very few representatives from Kosovo on the electoral lists, and the positions they hold speak quite the opposite of the strong messages about Kosovo heard during the campaign.

The importance of Kosovo for the Serbs is evidenced by the fact that it has entered poetry, prose, history, mythology, and even anatomy—with the famous phrase "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia". Not to mention the elections, because anyone who has dreamed these days of crossing the threshold has crossed one of the administrative crossings, precisely from Kosovo, to send fiery pre-election messages.

It seems that Kosovo is everywhere, except where we expect it the most—on the electoral lists.

When looking at the first 150 places on the lists for parliamentary elections, candidates from Kosovo are not represented as expected. The Serbian Progressive Party list and the Socialist Party of Serbia list have the most candidates from Kosovo—four each. The Serbia Against Violence coalition has two, while the coalition Hope (New Democratic Party of Serbia and Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia), National Gathering (Dveri and Oathkeepers Party), the "Good Morning Serbia" list (Social Democratic Party and Enough is Enough), and the People's Party list each have one candidate from Kosovo in the top 150.

Interestingly, the parties for whom the Kosovo issue is not only the essence of the election but also the overall party activity— The New Democratic Party of Serbia and Oathkeepers—do not have a single candidate from Kosovo in the top 150 on the list. Instead, their coalition partners - Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia and Dveri - delegated a candidate from Kosovo.

Not only are they few in number, but they are not well positioned everywhere, so an uninformed observer, looking at the election lists, might conclude that one of the main campaign topics is not Kosovo, but, for example, Sombor or Cacak.

Journalist Ljiljana Smajlovic says for Kosovo Online that very little has actually been said about Kosovo in this campaign, although she adds, that the Serbian Progressive Party has succeeded in the last ten years in making everyone ritually swear allegiance to the territorial integrity of the country, and few opposition figures dare to say, "We have lost Kosovo, forget about it".

"Most parties are politically compelled to speak before the elections about defending Serbian presence in Kosovo and Serbian rights to Kosovo. Whether Kosovo is important to a party is not so much evident in the number of people on the lists from Kosovo but rather in the positions these candidates hold. The Serbian Progressive Party at least has the President of the Serb List from Kosovo high on its list; he will certainly enter parliament. On the Serbia Against Violence list, you have an opposition figure from Kosovo Slavisa Ristic, who is in 97th place. I don't think even the biggest optimists within Dragan Djilas' camp planned for Ristic to ever enter parliament", Smajlovic says.

She adds that the parties are not interested in people from Kosovo, not even those parties that have made a platform out of it and claim they would be much more loyal to Kosovo than Vucic.

"Even right-wing parties whose platform is to be much fiercer advocates for Kosovo than Vucic, they don't actually go into details, they don't have people down there. Everyone knows that people in Kosovo mostly vote for Vucic and his party, and then, a few days before the elections, they go there to take pictures so that no one can say they weren't interested at all, but in reality, I don't believe they are fighting for the votes of those people down there. We don't even know how many voters from Kosovo will be able to vote. Some take them for granted, others pretend to care about them. If I were to live in Kosovo now, this election campaign would drive me into deep despair and sadness", Smajlovic emphasizes.

Our interlocutor points out that she is not sure it would be even better if people from Kosovo had received more space in the campaign because, as she says, no one in Belgrade knows what voters from Kosovo want to hear.

"We don't know much about voters from Kosovo either politically or socially. They are an electoral asset for some party that wants to say, 'We would be tougher than the government'. So, I don't know what they would want to hear, but I can see that the opposition is not very interested, I assume that the government has the Serb List there and surely knows what the mood is like in Kosovo. That's why I can't say that the government is not interested and doesn't know the situation. But maybe they take it for granted. As for other parties, I think they want to tell the Serbs in Kosovo what should be done and what they would do better, rather than hear what they need. Their status is raised only to politically harm someone or to present themselves better here, and I haven't noticed any real concern for those people in the campaign, and I think the Serbs in Kosovo have no reason to expect anything special in these elections", Smajlovic states.

Predrag Lacmanovic from the Faktor Plus Agency told Kosovo Online that political currents willing to compromise and those who believe that Kosovo is lost, "just don't say it that clearly, but allude to it", consider it a much better and easier path and that the battle is already lost.

"However, they lose political points by doing so. This cannot win the sympathy of the majority of citizens, and therefore, such parties do not have much perspective. Now we have a somewhat united opposition that is a mixture of parties and leaders who are not in favor of recognizing Kosovo, nor of the concessions sought by the European Union regarding the Franco-German plan, while in the same group, you have parties that are willing to go that way. Voters are somewhat confused in this regard; I don't know how they will view all of this and how it will affect the ratings of these parties. Simply, confusing messages later reflect on the election results", Lacmanovic says.

Speaking about the various attempts of parties to get closer to voters from Kosovo during the election campaign, when it comes to parties like Oathkeepers Party and Dveri, our interlocutor reminds us that these are right-oriented parties, and it is neither strange nor inappropriate for their representatives to focus more on the Kosovo issue.

"However, Cuta or representatives of that bloc, we don't often have the opportunity to see them in that context, but I assume they are listening to public opinion and thus adjusting their actions in the campaign. I don't know how many votes it will bring them, but I also don't believe it will harm them. It's even desirable - for them to go and see, maybe they are not aware of the real situation. Maybe when they go among the people, talk, I believe they will learn something, and maybe they will change their stance or pay more attention to that issue", Lacmanovic notes.

He warns that how we relate to Kosovo also affects the kind of parties we will have.

"This is a layman's approach. Someone establishes a party, has their own ideas, tries to win as many votes as possible, to occupy certain positions in the state, and uses Kosovo as a very important element in every campaign, but just as many things in our country are done carelessly, a reflection of both the government and the parties, it is a reflection of our people. So how we relate to Kosovo, that's what kind of parties we have, or what kind of parties we have, that's how it is in Kosovo", Lacmanovic concludes.