Blazic: Kurti is "buying time" with elections to avoid forming the CSM

Marko Blazic, a researcher at the Center for Social Stability, says that Prime Minister Albin Kurti has been calculating the timing of the elections from the beginning to "buy time" and delay the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities.

“If we look, at the beginning of this year Kurti was advocating for elections, precisely because of the European Union institution elections, the upcoming American elections, and at that moment, in those geopolitical circumstances, he believed that elections suited him to some extent. But we had the problem of opposition disunity. Some wanted a vote of no confidence in the government, while others agreed to dissolve the assembly, which was Kurti's proposal. There was no agreement, they did not gather the necessary 80 votes in parliament to vote no confidence, and then Kurti and his Self-Determination party backed away from the idea of early elections. I primarily see this in the pressures from the European Union and the United States to enter the process of forming the CSM,” Blazic told Kosovo Online.

He adds that Kurti abandoned early elections due to changes on the geopolitical scene, as well as the debacle regarding membership in the Council of Europe and Western pressures to form the CSM.

“Albin Kurti simply wants to buy additional time to avoid entering the process of forming the CSM or to extract benefits from the US for Kosovo by November,” Blazic says.

When asked how changes at the helm of the United States would affect the policy toward Kosovo, this researcher says that Kurti is precisely afraid of this.

“Let's recall that Albin Kurti directly called on Albanian voters in the US in 2020 to vote for Joe Biden. I do not believe that Trump and his team will easily forget this,” Blazic specified.

Commenting on the possible election results, Blazic reminds that Kurti's Self-Determination has the greatest voter support and that in a new mandate, it will continue with the same policy – obstructing dialogue.

“He consistently takes unilateral actions to the detriment of Serbs in our southern province, with the desire to achieve his clear goal of an ethnically clean Kosovo. He will do everything to halt the negotiation process. The fact that for a full 11 years, and of course in the past four to five years, he has been avoiding the formation of the Community of Serb Municipalities speaks volumes. I emphasize, he is simply using the postponement of elections due to geopolitical circumstances to utilize this vacuum space for additional extremization of the situation and for avoiding the formation of the CSM, clearly indicating that there is no dialogue with him,” Blazic says.

He believes that the West will eventually seek a more cooperative interlocutor than Kurti.

“America and the European Union will have to look for someone willing to cooperate. The process of normalizing relations must continue, and it cannot proceed if the formation of the CSM is not initiated. Albin Kurti persistently avoids this, and I think their unity for the higher goal will be seriously tested. The political West will test them, primarily in the desire to find constructive interlocutors in our southern province. Simply, the process of forming the CSM must be initiated, and with Albin Kurti, this is not possible. I think the chances are slim that they will remain united in a policy that will isolate them,” Blazic believes.

He explains that this unity will be disrupted by the West itself.

“The process must move forward at some point. This situation has become unbearable. The situation for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is unbearable. If Albin Kurti continues to pursue this policy, I fear that we will face only increasing escalation,” Blazic concludes.