Petritsch: I hope that the right wing in the EU elections will not succeed; it would not positively affect the resolution of the Kosovo issue

Former European Union envoy for Kosovo, Wolfgang Petritsch, hopes that the rise of the extreme right in European Union elections will not be successful, as he believes it would negatively impact the resolution of the Kosovo issue.

The European Union is set to have elections for the European Parliament and new compositions of key institutions in June next year, and research indicates a trend of strengthening right-wing parties.

Responding to the question of how a rightward shift in the EU's political landscape might affect the Kosovo issue and the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Petritsch told for Kosovo online that he fears it would not have a positive impact.

"We see in Serbia that the extreme right did not succeed in the elections, and I hope that it will not have greater success in the European elections," Petritsch said.

He stressed that this concern is not only because he is personally convinced that only moderate politics, a politics of compromise, can bring success, but also because the extreme right, as he notes, "only has its own interests and no interest in a European solution to that problem."

"It is about Serbia progressing faster in accession negotiations, and progress in Brussels can only be guaranteed by moderate forces, social democrats, liberal-conservatives, and not extreme nationalists," Petritsch added.