Vuletic: The election campaign in Kosovo will certainly not seek the normalization of relations with the Serbs

Sociologist Vladimir Vuletic says that, in Kosovo, ahead of the elections scheduled for February 9, a campaign in which nationalist sentiments will intensify should be expected and that it certainly will not be a campaign seeking normalization of relations with Serbs.

"This means that the campaign will not be aimed at seeking constructive solutions to the relationship between Belgrade and Pristina. So, the only thing we can expect is that it will be a campaign in which nationalist sentiments will intensify. In the end, we can say, and unfortunately, Kosovo, as they see it, does not prioritize economic issues or any other topics besides those concerning nationalism and the national question," Vuletic said.

When asked whether the statement by PDK MP Bekim Haxhiu that anyone "who kills a Serbian police officer" has his "respect and the respect of the people of Kosovo" is part of the election campaign, Vuletic says that it is "an unequivocal call to terrorism."

"We live in a time when it is very important to emphasize that there must be zero tolerance for terrorism everywhere. We can discuss what his motives were. Whether it was a politically motivated statement intended to somehow show that he and his party are more extreme in expressing the national interests of Albanians, or it was simply a case of heat getting to his head. But these are things that are not important now, and it would be a kind of dilution, or an attempt to relativize the content of the statement itself, and the content of the statement is truly unacceptable for anyone, especially for someone holding any political office," Vuletic said.