Blazic: Serbs showed unity by boycotting the referendum, Kurti must conduct new elections

Marko Blazic from the Center for Social Stability assesses that the boycott of the vote to dismiss Albanian mayors in four municipalities in northern Kosovo has shown that the unity of the Serbian people in those areas has been preserved despite all the pressures and obstructions exerted on them by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. He emphasizes that the international community must now exert pressure on Pristina to carry out the removal of the four illegal and illegitimate mayors in northern Kosovo and to organize new local elections without any referendum.

Blazic points out that due to all the circumstances in which this referendum was held, as well as all the events that preceded it, it was a "mission impossible" for this process to be successful.

"The Serbian people managed to preserve unity, as evidenced by the turnout of 0.54% in this referendum. The turnout is like that for numerous reasons, primarily due to very complex procedures for the referendum to be considered successful. Albin Kurti created such an atmosphere and such procedures that it was simply impossible for the referendum to succeed," Blazic said for Kosovo Online.

He pointed out that it should not be forgotten that the international community bore responsibility for this situation in northern Kosovo and for such a referendum.

"Let's remember that their condition, or proposal, was for Serbs to sign petitions, and when we look at the proportion of the number of people who signed the petition compared to the number of people who voted for Albanian mayors in four municipalities with a predominantly Serbian population, it is clear how disproportionate it is. Three percent voted for these mayors, and more than 20 percent of the population signed a petition for their dismissal," he stated.

Blazic emphasizes that even this was not enough for Albin Kurti to remove the mayors, instead, he invented "some kind of referendum."

It is needless to speak about the conditions in which this referendum was held and the security procedures where armed individuals were present, cameras filming voters. Simply put, the entire atmosphere, as he observes, was created in such a way that the only correct response was the boycott by the Serbian population.

Blazic believes that now the international community must react. According to his assessment, this reaction must go in only one direction, which is to exert pressure and to unconditionally carry out the removal of the four illegal and illegitimate mayors in northern Kosovo.

"Kurti considers these elections legal and legitimate, he had the support of the international community, yet we see that he had to back down and conduct some sort of referendum," he notes.

Kurti had to hold the referendum under pressure from the international community, Blazic points out, adding that the international community must now fulfill its part of the agreement and pressure Kurti to hold new elections without any referendums.

"Simply put, there must be new elections in northern Kosovo to vote for the election of mayors and members of the assemblies of the four municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija," Blazic concludes.