Pavkovic: Developments in the Assembly confirm that the Serb List is not a desired political actor in Kosovo

Milos Pavkovic, Strategic Director at the Center for European Policies, assessed that the refusal to elect a representative of the Serb List as Deputy Speaker of the Kosovo Assembly is “just one in a series of events” confirming that the Serb List is not considered a desirable partner or political actor in Kosovo.

“The refusal to elect a representative of the Serb List as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly is only one in a series of events that actually confirms the thesis that the Serb List is not a desired partner and not a desired political actor in Kosovo,” Pavkovic told Kosovo Online.

According to him, the goal of the Self Determination Movement is to appoint a “suitable” candidate from the Serbian community, namely Nenad Rasic, whose parliamentary mandate, he emphasized, was itself questionable.

Pavkovic recalled that the Serb List had accused Rasic of entering parliament thanks to Albanian votes, while at the same time noting that he cannot be nominated for Deputy Speaker since that right, like the election of the Speaker of the Assembly, belongs to the party that won the majority of votes.

“It is clear that this is an attempt by Self Determination to choose someone closer to them. Nenad Rasic was a minister in the previous government, he has good cooperation with Self Determination and with Albin Kurti. The undesirability of the Serb List is the main reason behind the decision not to elect Slavko Simic and to attempt to elect Nenad Rasic instead, which is questionable from both the perspective of the Constitution and Kosovo’s laws. The Serb List will certainly appeal such a decision if their representative is not elected Deputy Speaker of the Assembly,” Pavkovic stated.

He added that it is difficult to predict to what extent the Serb List’s announced appeal to the Constitutional Court could block the election of Rasic.

“The question is how quickly the Constitutional Court will react and whether, in the meantime, someone else will be elected. I see room here for manipulation, since it seems to me that the Constitutional Court cannot act very quickly – certainly not faster than the time it would take for Nenad Rasic or someone else to potentially be elected,” the analyst observed.

Pavkovic further noted that the Serb List “has not been a desired political factor” for quite some time.

“The Serb List has not been a desired political factor for a long time. From the events in Banjska, to attempts to prevent it from running in last year’s parliamentary elections, and now with the open sabotage of its participation in local elections – it is entirely clear that the Serb List is neither a partner nor a party viewed favorably in Kosovo, and every effort is being made to restrict it,” Pavkovic concluded.