Stevic: Today’s developments in Assembly are political manipulation and a Self-Determination ploy

North Mitrovica journalist Lazar Stevic said that what happened in the Kosovo Assembly today amounted to political manipulation and a ploy by Self-Determination, assessing that the party did not want the parliament to be constituted, while at the same time creating the impression that everyone had more rights than the Serbian people.

“It is not in their interest for the Assembly to be constituted because that would trigger the statutory deadline within which they would have to elect a new president. We know that Self-Determination currently does not have enough votes to resolve that issue, so we would most likely head to elections, which does not suit them. The new date that had been set is not tied to December, which suits Self-Determination best because that is when its voters come back,” Stevic said.

According to him, Self-Determination succeeded today in achieving what mattered to it—having Albulena Haxhiu re-elected as Speaker of the Assembly.

“We know that her mandate, including as Acting President, had expired. She is now once again Acting President of Kosovo for the next six months,” he explained.

Speaking about today’s adjournment of the session following Serb List MP Igor Simic’s statement that the Serb List was nominating Slavko Simic on behalf of the Serbian people, Stevic said that this was not the first time the term “Serbian people” had been used in the Kosovo Assembly.

“The Serbian people have been mentioned in the Kosovo Assembly before; this is not the first time. However, they have now used this merely to adjourn the Assembly session, as a pretext for suspending it. The question is, on whose behalf was Mr Igor Simic supposed to nominate Slavko Simic? Since, according to them, there are apparently bison and polar bears in Kosovo as well, perhaps he should have nominated Slavko Simic on behalf of extraterrestrials. Then they would have said, ‘Fine, extraterrestrials exist, but the Serbian people do not.’ That is how far they are going in their refusal to understand and accept that Serbs also live here and that they are equal citizens. They created a problem for no reason whatsoever. Now they are invoking the Constitution and all sorts of other absurdities. But Igor Simic clearly said ‘on behalf of the Serbian people.’ The Serbian people live in Kosovo, and there is nothing new or problematic about that. Apparently, it is problematic only for Self-Determination MPs, because they simply cannot come to terms with the fact that Serbs, too, live in Kosovo alongside them,” Stevic said.

Stevic said that Self-Determination would continue with political maneuvers and performances such as those seen in the Kosovo Assembly today in order to delay its constitution for as long as possible.

“If they constitute the Assembly, they will then have to form a government and proceed with the vote for a new president, and that does not suit them because they simply do not have the numbers. Their objective is to drag this out until December and then go to new elections because they are well aware that this is when the largest number of their voters from the diaspora come to Kosovo,” he said.

Stevic also recalled that Self-Determination was factoring in September 16, when the judgment against the KLA leaders is due to be delivered.

“What does not work in their favor is that, unfortunately for us Serbs who had expected a different judgment, all indications are that Hashim Thaci will be acquitted, meaning that they will face a serious opponent if new elections are held,” Stevic concluded.