Pantic Pilja: Elections in Kosovo were a pre-orchestrated political operation aimed at eliminating the Serb List

At a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, during a debate on the report of election observers for the Assembly of Kosovo elections held on 28 December 2025, members of the Serbian delegation assessed that the electoral process was not democratic and pointed to what they described as numerous irregularities and pressures.

Head of the Serbian delegation Biljana Pantic Pilja stated that the electoral process had been a pre-orchestrated political operation.

“Elections in Kosovo and Metohija were anything but democratic. This was a pre-orchestrated political operation with a clear objective—to eliminate the Serb List as the only legitimate and authentic representative of the Serbian people. Albin Kurti systematically carried out obstructions aimed at banning the political activity of the Serb List. Only after numerous complaints and pressure from Europe was the Central Election Commission forced to adopt a decision allowing the verification of the list,” Pilja stated.

As she explained, there can be no talk of a democratic electoral process in Kosovo, recalling that 109 people were arrested for electoral manipulation.

“Despite all intimidation and electoral engineering, the Serb List won 10 mandates, yet once again, as before, Kurti took a mandate away from the Serb List. These elections will remain recorded as an example of how democratic form is used to abolish substance—the substance being the right of the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija to have their legitimate representatives,” she said.

Pilja also emphasized that the elections were held in conditions of severe and continuous violence against the Serbian population.

“Since Kurti came to power, more than 700 ethnically motivated attacks against Serbs have been recorded. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 is not being respected, the Brussels Agreement is not being implemented, and the Association of Serb-majority Municipalities has remained a dead letter for 13 years. By defending the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija, international law and the Charter of the United Nations are being defended. We warned you that by disregarding international law you have opened Pandora’s box. International law applies to all—Serbia, Denmark, Ukraine—every country without exception. I fear you still have not understood that double standards have led us to all these conflicts today,” Pilja said.

Aleksandar Mirkovic, a member of Serbia’s delegation to PACE, stressed that the elections in Kosovo were not a democratic process but, as he said, “a staged political operation aimed at destroying the Serb List, the only legitimate and authentic list of Serbs.”

“Despite all pressures, threats and obstructions, the Serb List won in all Serb-majority areas, securing more than 42,000 votes. Under clear electoral rules, this result meant winning all ten guaranteed seats for the Serb List in parliament. However, Kurti engaged in political engineering and took one mandate away from the Serb List through a contingent of Albanian votes,” Mirkovic stated.
These votes, he added, came from areas where there are virtually no Serbs, including places from which Serbs were ethnically expelled in 1999.

“Those votes went to Kurti’s satellite, Nenad Rasic. Elections in Kosovo and Metohija are conducted under conditions of severe and continuous violence against the Serbian people. Since Kurti came to power, there have been more than 700 ethnically motivated attacks against Serbs. These attacks include assaults on Serbian children, families, and facilities of the Serbian Orthodox Church, without an adequate response from the international community or institutions in Pristina.”

The policy of double standards and disregard for international law, Mirkovic added, does not lead to peace but deepens conflict.

“I told you that you opened Pandora’s box by forcibly changing the borders of my country, Serbia, trampling on the UN Charter and disregarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country. At the time, you did not care. Now you are in panic, repeating my words and wondering who will be next. I regret that you will realize, in the harder way, that we were right about the historical injustice inflicted upon my people. But I am glad that support for the false state of Kosovo is now returning to you like a boomerang, faster than I expected. I will repeat once again: Kosovo is Serbia. If it is not for you, then you have no right to lament the fate of other countries that could be forcibly deprived of their territory,” Mirkovic concluded.

The Assembly of Kosovo delegation, represented by Ardijan Gola and Emilija Rexhepi, is attending the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, which runs until 24 April.
The Central Election Commission rejected on 10 December the verification of the Serb List candidates for the parliamentary elections scheduled for 28 December 2025. Reactions from the international community followed, and the Serb List filed an appeal, which was upheld by the Electoral Complaints and Appeals Panel.