Radojkovic: If Osmani is re-elected president, Serbs should not expect any help from her

Historian Stefan Radojkovic told Kosovo Online that if Vjosa Osmani is once again elected president of Kosovo, Serbs in Kosovo know that she will not be a president of all citizens and, in that sense, should not expect any help from her.

“Serbs do not need to fear her directly, but she will not truly be the president of all citizens of Kosovo and Metohija. She will probably not do anything additional to make their lives harder, but she certainly will not help them either. There are others tasked with such an approach toward Serbs,” Radojkovic said.

He points out that under the constitutional framework of the Pristina administration, the president has no major executive powers and is expected to represent institutions abroad, and that it can be expected that in a possible new term Osmani would try to secure a few more recognitions of the Pristina administration’s independence.

“She will do everything to mobilize the diaspora as well. Since she has already been campaigning for re-election for some time, she has visited not only capitals in Western Europe and the United States, but also a number of countries with a majority Muslim population. It is clear that this was part of her campaign, but also an effort to seek greater support in light of current global geopolitical developments,” our interlocutor notes.

At this moment, however, as he points out, the biggest question is which of the opposition parties will support Osmani or another candidate of Kurti’s government whom that government will nominate, in order to secure a two-thirds majority.

“Whether any opposition party will be constructive or whether the opposition will block all of this and move toward a new round of elections. But then the question arises as to how much that would work in their favor and whether they want to gamble with these election results, which for the opposition are generally worse than those in February last year,” Radojkovic notes.

He adds that pressure from the international community is certain, and judging by the interests of the major powers, as he says, they will likely make an effort to ensure that a president is elected in March.

If an opposition party provides support for the election of a president, he emphasizes, it will then expect that, at least as far as Self-Determination is concerned, it will no longer be a target of media attacks, that is, that it will have preferential status as an unofficial coalition partner of Kurti’s third government.