Celic: Pristina won't hold new elections; the goal is to retain power in the north in the long run

The decision of the President of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica to reject the citizens' group's request to initiate a petition for the dismissal of Mayor Erden Atiq was expected, according to Dusko Celic, a Professor at the University of Pristina with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica because as he points out, Pristina's goal is to retain power in the north in the long run and to exert constant pressure on the Serbs through illegitimately elected local governments.

Celic reminds Kosovo Online that Pristina organized elections in April knowing that the Serbs would not participate due to unfulfilled political demands and that only the Albanian population might participate, whose share in the total population is within the margin of error, only a few percent.

"Pristina's scenario was not to take over local power in the north for a month, two, three, or a year, but with a long-term plan to stay in local governments for a more extended period, possibly the entire term, to further destabilize the Serbs in northern Kosovo. This is supported by the fact that these local governments did everything not to serve the citizens in the north but to make life more difficult for the Serbs. Let's remember that they closed construction sites. As a university worker, I want to remind you that they suspended work on the new building of the University in Kosovska Mitrovica. It's a shame what they did to the old Mitrovica cemetery. It's truly shameful to plow a cemetery in the 21st century. In the end, they washed their hands of all this. We will see what the outcome will be in court. There are a lot of things that these local governments did to further destabilize the Serbs", Celic says.

He expects a further deepening of the political crisis in the north, not stabilization.

"Unfortunately, I do not expect new elections in the north anytime soon, unless the foreign factor does something constructive, that is, puts pressure on Pristina", the professor says.

Regarding the message from the US Ambassador in Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenier, that the US expects the Government of Kosovo and officials at all levels to implement the Administrative Instruction for organizing a petition to dismiss the mayors and allow all citizens to demonstrate their democratic rights, Celic notes that the mentioned document was, in fact, aimed at preventing the Serbs from doing anything effective.

"The best way to have new elections in the north, if there is political will, is for those mayors in Pristina to resign. They have stated that they will not do that, of course, and these decisions were not made independently. So then, the multi-month saga began with writing this so-called administrative instruction. The essence was to make it difficult for citizens of Serbian nationality to submit any initiative. When the Serbs eventually organized and followed that instruction, now, as children would say, 'no, it doesn't count', not even that administrative instruction", Celic says.

He emphasizes that it is obvious that these bureaucratic maneuvers from Pristina are aimed at further delaying the extraordinary local elections in the north.

"At the moment, Pristina, considering the discriminatory policy toward the Serbs, open pressure, and institutional pressure in the north, simply does not want to have local elections in the north. And for the Serbs in the north, at least when it comes to local self-government, to take their destiny into their own hands", Celic concludes.