"Prolonged stalemate to follow": How will Hoti's cabinet collapse affect Belgrade-Pristina dialogue

Photo: TANJUG/AP/ TANJA VALIC

The decision of the Constitutional Court of so-called Kosovo to schedule early parliamentary elections in Kosovo and Metohija will lead to prolonged stalemate in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, believes the chair of the Serbian Assembly's Committee on Kosovo and Metohija, Milovan Drecun.

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Drecun told Tanjug that given that the so-called government of Avdullah Hoti will be in a technical mandate until the election of a new parliamentary majority and the formation of the executive power in Kosovo and Metohija, there will be neither a credible nor an appropriate partner in Pristina to continue the talks with, including on the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO), without which progress in the possible continuation of the talks is impossible.

"I don't believe that anyone in Pristina can now afford the political luxury of saying they can talk with Belgrade, reach and implement some agreements. I think that due to this scandalous and severe political crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, we will have a longer delay in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," stated Drecun.

He believes that a very complicated political period in Kosovo and Metohija is ahead among the Albanian parties, with an extremely uncertain outcome of the upcoming elections.

According to him, if the executive power is formed by Self-Determination, then it will be almost impossible to continue talks with that party, given the extreme positions held by it, and its leader Albin Kurti.

Milovan Drecun - Photo: Tanjug/Dragan Kujundzic

Drecun stresses that the situation is very difficult and that it can additionally endanger the security of the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija.

According to him, the problem is whether and when new indictments will be raised against KLA members, who they will concern, whether some who are now leaders of certain political parties will be in them, how Albanians will react to the fact that key figures of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci and Kadri Veseli, are now in jail, i.e., whether that party will get more or less votes.

"A very uncertain situation, and it is almost impossible to predict anything other than that the Self-Determination party will surely have a good showing in the elections," says Drecun.

He added that some polls indicate that Self-Determination will have a majority and said that this is intriguing precisely because of the extreme attitudes of that party and because they did everything to prevent the continuation of talks between Belgrade and Pristina when Kurti was the head of that so-called government.

Also, Drecun recalls that that party did everything to prevent the further work of the Specialist (Kosovo) Chambers (dealing with KLA crimes).

"A very important situation follows that will see a substantial reshuffling in the political scene among Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, and which direction it will take, remains to be seen," says Drecun.

The chair of the Assembly Committee believes that it may be a long time before the new executive power is formed in Kosovo and Metohija and explains that it can take up to two or three months for the elections to take place, while Albanian political representatives are known for taking a long time to form a majority.

"In the meantime, we will have the arrival of the new US administration to the White House. All put together, this is a combination of circumstances that was not predictable and expected, and which will have an essential effect on the continuation of the talks between Belgrade and Pristina," Drecun concluded.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)