Maroevic: Formation of a gendarmerie is part of Kurti’s pre-election campaign to mobilize the hardline base

Rade Maroevic, editor of the RTS website, told Kosovo Online that the announcement of forming a gendarmerie in Kosovo is primarily part of the pre-election strategy of the caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti, aimed at voters of a harder political line.

Maroevic believes that this is not essentially about a new security structure, but rather a “repackaging” of existing formations.

“I think that issue has basically been settled for a long time now. You can call those units whatever you want – firefighters, gendarmerie, pioneers… it makes no difference. This has to be resolved at a completely different level, and I think that the announcement of forming a gendarmerie is just part of that pre-election campaign in which, through some repackaging of the Kosovo Protection Corps, security forces, now a gendarmerie, voters are supposed to be attracted,” Maroevic said.

According to him, Kurti is counting on such a move to help him win over the votes of the “hard line”, including part of former KLA members.

“Kurti believes that the gendarmerie will bring those votes back to him. It is simply an election campaign and an attempt to reach a solution through some repackaging that would suit Pristina, certainly not the Serbs in northern Kosovo, but above all it is just part of the election campaign,” Maroevic stated.

Speaking about the role of KFOR, Maroevic said that over the past decades the mission has often failed to react in a timely manner.

“In 80 percent of cases over the past 27 years, KFOR did nothing. In some situations it did do significant things, but in others nothing at all, and I fear that this time as well it will turn a blind eye and react only when a problem arises, which I think is wrong,” he said.

However, he believes that KFOR will remain the key security factor for a long time.

“Given how things stand now, for many more years KFOR will remain the only real force on that administrative boundary, and it is a big question whether anyone will replace them anytime soon,” Maroevic concluded.