Igrutinovic: Events in the Kosovo Assembly part of permanent pressure on the Serb List and Serbs

Milan Igrutinovic, a research fellow at the Institute for European Studies, told Kosovo Online that the events in the Kosovo Assembly yesterday were part of a continuous pressure campaign against the Serb List and the Serbian community as a whole in Kosovo.

“Not attending the parliamentary session doesn’t mean much. Depending on administrative procedures, they came to verify their mandates as MPs, which is their right. I would say this is part of ongoing pressure specifically targeting the Serb List, but also the Serbian community in general. Both legal and extralegal measures are being used for this purpose,” Igrutinovic said.

He added that one of the goals of the incident in the Assembly had been to score political points.

“I saw comments suggesting that part of the session was dedicated to appointments to various official and administrative positions. A segment of the media strategy aimed to divert attention from who was being appointed through nepotistic connections by introducing a different topic. The clash with the Serb List served as a convenient narrative because it could be framed as a patriotic goal, overshadowing internal political matters. So, I would interpret yesterday’s events in the Kosovo Assembly from two perspectives. On one hand, it is a permanent pressure, and on the other, an attempt to boost domestic political standing by appealing to a public that often favors such empty yet patriotic gestures,” Igrutinovic concluded.