Spahiu: The Serbian community should seek greater investment from the new authorities in the municipalities where it lives

Political analyst Nexhmedin Spahiu told Kosovo Online that during Albin Kurti’s next term, the Serbian community should not view the authorities with hostility, but should instead seek greater investment in the municipalities where Serbs live, as well as higher employment.

Such demands, he believes, could yield results and the authorities would not ignore them.

In his view, it has been shown that it is not true that Kurti was against the Serbian community in Kosovo.

“Kurti succeeded in expelling the Serbian state from Kosovo, and that is a fact. This may not be good news for Belgrade or for the authorities in Belgrade, but that does not mean this is a campaign against the Serbian minority. Perhaps Serbs in Kosovo would like to live in the state of Serbia, that is, for the state of Serbia to function in Kosovo and for there to be no state of Kosovo, but that is a fact that emerged from the 1999 war and was realized under Kurti’s rule. But essentially, this is not an action against the Serbian minority,” Spahiu says.

The final integration of the north, according to him, has been achieved and there is nothing more to be done in terms of formal integration.

“By the very fact that representatives of the Serb List won, there is now legitimate and legal authority in the northern municipalities of Kosovo. They were sworn in under the flags of Kosovo and all of that is fine. There is nothing more to be done in terms of formal integration. Substantive integration, however, implies greater investment in the north and higher employment, and that is a process that continues throughout Kosovo,” he notes.

Speaking about the new Kosovo government, Spahiu assesses that Nenad Rasic will again be in coalition with Kurti, while the Serb List will be among the opposition parties in the Kosovo parliament.

“I expect it to be more active and to establish cooperation with other parties in parliament, Albanian and non-Albanian alike, in order to achieve the interests of the Serbian community in Kosovo as much as possible. I have no objections to the way it functions, but I believe it needs to be more active and more assertive, because that is in the interest of the Serbian community in Kosovo,” Spahiu emphasizes.