Muhaxhiri: Term “Serbian people” not problematic, Self-Determination needed an alibi for delay

Commenting on Kosovo Assembly Speaker Albulena Haxhiu’s decision yesterday to adjourn the constitutive session over Serb List parliamentary group leader Igor Simic’s statement that “on behalf of the Serbian people, he was nominating Slavko Simic for Deputy Speaker,” political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri said that the use of the term “Serbian people” was not problematic. Former Constitutional Court judge Kadri Kryeziu, meanwhile, said that Simic should have nominated the candidate using the phrase “on behalf of the Serb List parliamentary group,” although he did not justify Self-Determination’s reaction either, Radio Free Europe reported.

According to Kryeziu, the Kosovo Constitution has already been violated because the Assembly was not constituted within 30 days of the certification of the election results—the deadline established by a Constitutional Court ruling.

“The deadline for constituting the Assembly expired on August 7. What we are seeing now is merely political maneuvering, Balkan-style spite and primitivism,” Kryeziu said.

Sociologist and political analyst Artan Muhaxhiri told RFE that the use of the term “Serbian people” was not problematic, while describing Self-Determination’s decision to adjourn the session over the issue as a “populist move,” made because the party “needed an alibi to delay the constitution of parliament.”

“Simic used the same term in the Assembly in 2021 without any problem whatsoever—just as Albulena Haxhiu did in 2018 in connection with her position on the dialogue, and even Kurti himself did so on June 3, 2023, in his speech before the Assembly concerning the attack on KFOR in northern Kosovo,” Muhaxhiri said.

Muhaxhiri assessed that, given the current circumstances, the Kosovo Assembly would not be constituted anytime soon because “Kurti does not want it to be.”

He noted that Kurti enjoys strong support from the diaspora and suggested that one possible scenario was that he wanted to call new elections during the New Year and Christmas holidays, when voters living abroad traditionally return to Kosovo.

“And, by all indications, the Constitutional Court will once again have to intervene decisively and try to help resolve this enormous political chaos,” he said.

Muhaxhiri added that the latest developments did not surprise him because Kurti “uses unusual methods and establishes surreal frameworks for political action.”

In that context, he explained, Kurti had also said that he would not support the candidacies of LDK’s Kujtim Shala and PDK’s Vlora Citaku because they had publicly stated that they would not support his candidate for President of Kosovo.

“This means that Kurti is publicly demanding that they abandon their political positions, careers and identities, or that their parties submit to his wishes and replace them with other candidates acceptable to him. This is science fiction, not real politics,” Muhaxhiri said.

During yesterday’s continuation of the session, Albulena Haxhiu, who also held the position in the previous legislature, was elected Speaker of Parliament.

The problem arose, however, during the election of the Deputy Speakers. Haxhiu adjourned the session over the Serb List’s nomination and the statement by its parliamentary group leader Igor Simic that “on behalf of the Serbian people, he was nominating Slavko Simic for Deputy Speaker.”

Following Haxhiu’s election, the Assembly proceeded to nominations for Deputy Speakers—Self-Determination nominated Ardian Gola, the PDK nominated Vlora Citaku, the LDK nominated Kujtim Shala, the Serb List nominated Slavko Simic, while Emilia Rexhepi was nominated as the candidate of the non-majority communities.

Following consultations with the parliamentary group leaders, Haxhiu said that the political parties had failed to reach agreement on the procedure for voting on the Deputy Speakers. She also asked the Assembly administration to inform her whether the Serb List’s nomination for Deputy Speaker complied with the Constitution.

She further said that Simic had made an unacceptable statement while presenting the nomination for Deputy Speaker and called on him to withdraw it.

Simic, however, stood by his statement, saying that he was “a member of the Serbian people and would not allow anyone to take that right away from him.” Haxhiu then withdrew his right to speak, adjourned the session and announced that it would resume tomorrow at 11 a.m.