Gogic on Gervalla’s statement: If saying “Serbian people” is problematic, then so is saying “Albanian people”

Political scientist Ognjen Gogic told Kosovo Online that it was not in Self-Determination’s interest for the Kosovo Assembly to be constituted and that, in his assessment, this was the main reason the session was adjourned, rather than Serb List MP Igor Simic’s use of the word “people,” which he said had merely been used as a pretext for suspending the session.

“Today’s session was supposedly adjourned for that reason, but in essence this is once again a calculation by Self-Determination, because it does not suit them for the Assembly to be constituted yet.

They are delaying the constitution of the Assembly because, once it is constituted, the deadlines for electing the government and the president begin to run. If those deadlines are missed, the Assembly is dissolved. So they want to buy time so that, if the Assembly is ultimately dissolved, it happens at the most favorable moment for them—in other words, so that elections can once again be held toward the end of the year,” Gogic explained.

According to him, Self-Determination achieved what mattered to it today: the re-election of Albulena Haxhiu as Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly, thereby making her Acting President of Kosovo once again.

“In doing so, they effectively removed the objection—or rather the speculation and dilemma—that her exercise of the office of President of Kosovo is currently unconstitutional because a new Assembly should already have been constituted and a new Speaker elected. So they actually achieved two things at the same time. They secured a full mandate for Albulena Haxhiu as Speaker of the Assembly and, consequently, as Acting President of Kosovo. But they also halted the constitution of the Assembly, because the Assembly is not constituted until all Deputy Speakers have been elected. Therefore, the deadlines for electing the government and the President of Kosovo have not yet begun to run. That is actually the reason behind this entire situation,” Gogic said.

Gogic considers the controversy over the use of the word “people” merely an excuse.

“This is Self-Determination’s populism and simply something they have used to launch another campaign—to once again portray themselves as those who are protecting Kosovo and the Kosovo Constitution from the Serbian side. They have once again returned to a narrative that resonates with their public. They have used this as an opportunity to launch the kind of campaign they will need for forthcoming elections. They are presenting themselves as some kind of defenders of the Constitution, when in fact they are the ones who suspended the work of the Assembly and violated the Constitution by preventing the Assembly from being constituted when it should have been, within the deadline set by the Constitutional Court,” he stressed.

Gogic described the debate over whether Simic was entitled to use the word “people” as nonsensical.

“Gervalla’s statement that there is no Serbian people in Kosovo, but only a Serbian community, is perhaps even more problematic. Deputy Speakers are nominated in writing. The Serb List therefore complied with the procedure by submitting the name of its candidate for Deputy Speaker in writing. What was said at the lectern is not decisive and does not carry that kind of weight. The word ‘people’ has, for example, been used at the lectern before. They themselves previously spoke about the Serbian people without provoking similar reactions. It is true that, from a constitutional and legal perspective, the Kosovo Constitution does not actually speak of peoples, but of communities. Under the Kosovo Constitution, there is the Albanian community and there are non-majority communities, including the Serbian, Bosniak, Gorani and others. Therefore, if saying ‘Serbian people’ is problematic, then saying ‘Albanian people’ would be equally problematic, because the Kosovo Constitution recognizes the Albanian community, not the Albanian people,” Gogic said.

He added that it was absurd for Haxhiu and Gervalla to interpret what the word “people” meant in the Serbian language and, on that basis, decide whether its use was problematic.

“When one says ‘people’—‘the Serbian people’—in the Serbian language, it is essentially more of an ethnic designation. In other words, it is as though Igor Simic had said ‘on behalf of the Serbian ethnic community’ or ‘ethnic group,’ which in itself is not problematic even under the Kosovo Constitution. So this is now an entirely fabricated and nonsensical debate which will, of course, gain traction in the public and can be framed in nationalist terms. But in reality, it shifts the focus away from the main issue, which is that Self-Determination, in violation of the Constitution, is preventing the Kosovo Assembly from being constituted,” he said.

The constitutive session will continue on Friday, and Gogic predicts that Self-Determination will once again seek to prevent this important process from being completed in order to buy additional time.

“Either they want to further develop an agreement with the other parties on the election of the president or, failing that, postpone all these steps for as long as possible. They want the Assembly to be constituted as late as possible so that they subsequently gain as much time as possible for electing the government and the president—or, if that fails, at least ensure that elections are called for a date that suits them best. Similar obstruction can be expected. They may come up with other excuses as to why the Assembly will not be constituted on Friday either. They may blame the Albanian opposition, which itself uses the Assembly session as a stage for promoting its ideas. So we should expect new excuses for interrupting the Assembly’s work,” Gogic said.

Before the session began, some MPs affixed the KLA emblem to the lectern, which Gogic sees as a symbolic struggle among the Albanians themselves over the KLA legacy, since the move was made by opposition MPs who are more closely associated with that legacy.

“The KLA is now a form of symbolic political capital in Kosovo because the issue attracts public attention and generates sympathy and solidarity among the Albanian public. The question now is who can benefit from it the most. Kurti cannot, because his party did not emerge from the KLA and he was consistently an opponent and rival of KLA leader Hashim Thaci. He cannot appropriate that legacy, so the opposition is using this moment to score political points by glorifying the KLA. As the moment of the judgment approaches, they will try as much as possible to keep the issue in the spotlight, including through the Assembly session, which is yet another reason why Self-Determination does not want the session to proceed. This is not a battle Kurti can win against the opposition. The opposition can benefit from the passions that have been stirred up over the KLA. This is not necessarily directed against Serbs, but they could become collateral damage. This is a struggle among the Albanians themselves, but the Serbs could ultimately be the ones who pay the price,” Gogic concluded.