Mitic: I don't expect the mayors to resign; Kurti wants to legitimize everything that has been done in the last year and a half

Aleksandar Mitic, a scientific collaborator at the Institute for International Politics and Economics, doesn't anticipate that Albanian mayors in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo will resign, even after a significantly larger number of signatures were collected for a petition to remove them than the votes they received in the elections. He believes that Albin Kurti, through the legal entanglement involving Kosovo Serbs, aims to legitimize what has been done in the last year and a half.

"I don't expect any resignations from Albanian mayors because that would be a defeat for Kurti's policy, and he wants, through this procedure and legal confusion he introduces to Kosovo Serbs, quite the opposite, and that is to legitimize what has been done in the last year and a half, and he tries to humiliate the Serbs, making them beg him to participate in forming the government," Mitic stated.

He adds that this is not only humiliation for Kosovo Serbs but also a continuation of a very precise policy that, in his opinion, is evidently coordinated with partners from the Quint, in this case, the EU.

"That is to legalize Kurti's rule in northern Kosovo in this way. That's what he wants," Mitic emphasizes.

Regarding Kurti's alleged concessions to the EU, Mitic believes that, in essence, everything works in Kurti's favor.

"All the discussions about these legal procedures in the coming weeks and months are in function of a very precise and quite cunning policy that Kurti is implementing with the aim of integrating Serbs, primarily from northern Kosovo and Metohija, into the so-called legal system of Kosovo," Mitic concludes.

According to the administrative instructions of the Ministry of Local Government, the signatures collected within the petition are submitted to the president of the municipal assembly and the Central Election Commission (CEC), which verifies the list of signatures. If the petition is supported by at least 20 percent of voters, the CEC organizes a vote for the mayor's removal, following the procedures in accordance with the laws on general and local elections. The vote for the mayor's removal is then organized within 45 days at the latest.

For mayors to be removed, 50 percent plus one of the registered voters in the municipality must vote in favor.

Only after this citizen referendum, if the decision is positive, would new elections be considered.

This procedure, it is estimated, could take up to six months, while the mayors' resignations would immediately pave the way for new elections.