French MEP's strong message: Kosovo is a part of Serbia to me, pity that NATO did police work

Photo: Tanjug/AP/Bojan Slavkovic

French member of the European Parliament (MEP) Thierry Mariani says that it is time for the situation in the north of Kosovo and Metohija to calm down and pointed out that it is necessary to "remember how it all started," reports Tanjug.

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He told the agency that the reality is that it all started when the Pristina authorities wanted to forcibly appoint mayors who had no legitimacy.

"I regret the fact that NATO forces were engaged in that territory and used to perform police work on behalf of the government in Pristina. Now is the time for the situation to calm down," said Mariani and reminded that on June 12, the prime minister of Pristina's provisional institutions, Allbin Kurti, accepted to hold new elections.

According to him, in the territory where citizens of Serb nationality are majority, municipal authorities can only be representatives of the majority population.

"In the elections that were boycotted by the Serbs, the mayors who were elected by the votes of less than 5 percent of the electorate are not legitimate representatives," said Mariani and repeated that he regrets that the NATO forces engaged in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija were used by Pristina to forcibly "enthrone" illegitimate municipal leaders.

Commenting on yesterday's address of the president of the provisional institutions of Pristina, Vjosa Osmani, in the European Parliament, he stressed that he did not listen to it directly, because he only follows the speeches given by heads of state in that way.

"For me, Kosovo is a part of Serbia, not an independent state," he said.

He reminded that numerous EU member states - Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Greece - did not recognize Kosovo as independent.

"In my opinion, allowing Kosovo to join the European Union would be a destabilizing factor and a path to opening problems with Albania. I will persist in my position and the position of my party that we do not agree that this territory should join the European Union," said French MEP Mariani.

(Telegraf.rs)