Jeremic: Rudolph will continue Germany’s hypocritical policy toward dialogue and Kosovo

The Serbian community in Kosovo cannot be satisfied with the performance of German Ambassador Jorn Rohde, and his successor, Rainer Rudolph, will continue Germany’s “hypocritical policy” toward the Belgrade–Pristina dialogue and the position of Serbs, former Yugoslav ambassador to Germany, Zoran Jeremic, told Kosovo Online.

“What we’ll see is a continuation of a classic, more or less hypocritical policy, in which he (Rudolph) speaks of the need to protect Ukraine’s territorial integrity while arriving as an ambassador to a country that was created after his own country recognized it, in violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity. The hypocrisy that has existed before will continue, perhaps in a slightly different form. We can see this from the fact that Germany. and Europe as a whole, tries to frame its role in Kosovo as advisory or supportive, even though that is far less than the mandate they actually have, precisely because both Germany and Europe accepted to serve merely as a venue and facilitator for talks between the two sides,” Jeremic emphasized.

He explained that this is also visible through Germany’s stance on the Community of Serb Municipalities.

“Germany has withdrawn from that issue. They created the Ohrid and other agreements, which have now produced a simple situation: a Community of Serb Municipalities that doesn’t exist. They redefined it as a ‘Community of Municipalities with a Serb Majority,’ which practically means that once the Serb majority disappears, and that is, in fact, the goal of everything happening in Kosovo, there will be no need for such a community, or it will simply remain an empty shell dealing with some organization of healthcare or education systems that no one will really need,” Jeremic specified.

He expects Rudolph to continue Germany’s and Europe’s established policy on Kosovo.

“More or less, we should expect the continuation of European, and therefore German, policy in Kosovo, which could only change through strong and decisive American action. But, given Trump’s current priorities, that is unlikely to happen, and even if it did, it is questionable how it would look in practice,” the former Yugoslav ambassador to Berlin noted.

Jeremic describes Rudolph as an experienced diplomat who previously served as vice president of the Munich Security Conference, where NATO’s policies in Europe have been formulated over the past decades.

At the same time, he explains, Rudolph is a diplomat who “knows how to carry out the tasks he’s assigned.”

“He is an experienced diplomat who worked in Vienna and Warsaw, and also spent some time in the office of the German Chancellor. He knows his mission and how to execute it. He will implement the policy of the German Foreign Ministry, which this time is unified under both the CDU foreign minister and the chancellor, so there is no duality in the implementation of Germany’s policy,” Jeremic said.

Rainer Rudolph will replace Jorn Rohde, who served as Germany’s ambassador for five years.

Rohde bid farewell with a message that he would miss Kosovo, its weather, and the kindness of its people.

Jeremic explained that this was a standard diplomatic farewell phrase.

“He said goodbye to Kosovo in the usual, classical diplomatic manner, thanking the people for their kindness and the ‘beautiful nature,’ without actually mentioning the real situation he’s leaving behind,” Jeremic said.

Commenting on Rohde’s statement to Kosovo Online that Serbia should accept Kosovo as a sovereign state in every form, Jeremic said that the ambassador “consistently followed German policy” in that regard.

“The mandate of the former German ambassador, Jorn Rohde, was marked by the Ohrid Agreement and the subsequent arrangements, as well as by his persistent efforts to pressure Serbia into recognizing the Pristina authorities as legitimate and Kosovo as a sovereign state. That characterized his entire tenure,” Jeremic assessed.

He added that Rohde, as a responsible ambassador, carried out the directives he received from Berlin, in coordination with the ambassadors of the Quint countries.

“What he left behind in Kosovo is something the Serbian community there cannot be satisfied with. The Albanian community had its own goals, into which he fit quite well, constantly showing greater concern for Albanian interests than for Serbian ones,” Jeremic specified.

As an example of such a policy, he pointed to Rohde’s handling of the so-called “Kosovo citizen identity policy,” in which distinctions between Albanians and Serbs were deliberately blurred.

“But since Albanians are the overwhelming majority, this placed the Serb population in a minority position, and in some cases, he even compared them to the Danish minority in Germany, which is completely absurd,” the former diplomat emphasized.