Kosovo has been urged to hold new elections in the north of the country to de-escalate tensions with Serbia, after an intervention by Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron.
The leaders of Serbia and Kosovo were invited to impromptu talks at the close of a summit of 46 European leaders in Moldova on Thursday evening.
Earlier in the day tensions had flared with the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, accusing his Kosovan counterpart, Vjosa Osmani, of refusing to talk to him at the summit or enter dialogue over what he said were “sham elections” across the border.
Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority boycotted local elections in the north in April, allowing ethnic Albanians to take control of local councils despite a turnout of fewer than 3.5%.
“It is very clear that the Kosovan authorities bear the responsibility for the current situation,” Macron told reporters in Moldova, saying there was “non-compliance” with an agreement that was secured just a few weeks ago.
“We have asked the two parties to organise new elections in these four municipalities as soon as possible, with an undertaking from Kosovo with participation in these elections in a clear manner on the part of the Serbian side,” Macron said.
Osmani said she had told the European leaders that this would be possible under Kosovan law if the Serbian leadership in Belgrade did not encourage Serbs to boycott the poll.
“It requires bravery by all involved, because they will need to play their part in positions of political responsibility to ensure that de-escalation succeeds,” Scholz said in Moldova.
Igor Simić, a vice-president of the minority party Serb List in north Kosovo, said his party was considering what its stance would be towards these elections. In the meantime, he said his party would continue to stand with Serbian “employees and citizens” who are protesting until the Kosovo authorities meet their demands, which include calling for “Kosovo special units and fake mayors occupying municipalities with force” to leave and arrested protesters to be released.
Violence erupted in the northern Kosovan town of Zvecan this week as Serbian protesters clashed with Nato peacekeeping forces who were guarding Albanian mayors entering their new offices. The unrest, which resulted in more than 60 injuries on both sides, marked the worst violence in the region in over a decade.
Kosovo’s prime minister has blamed the unrest on “fascist mobs” controlled by the government of neighbouring Serbia. But despite such allegations, Dr Helena Ivanov, an associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society thinktank, said the protests were driven by accumulated grievances and 18 months of worsening relations between Serbs and Albanians in north Kosovo.
“It’s possible that the most violent people in that crowd were paid agitators, a tactic that Serbian president Vučić has used in the past to distract from domestic troubles,” she said, citing the continuing protests in Belgrade where tens of thousands have demonstrated against the government’s handling of two mass shootings and the continued use of violent, nationalistic propaganda in the media. “But I do genuinely believe many people were there because they were fed up.”
Serbs, a majority in northern Kosovo, have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and still see Belgrade as their capital more than 20 years after the Kosovo war.
In recent months a string of incidents have ratcheted up tensions. In November, Kosovo announced plans to fine ethnic Serb residents who refused to surrender Serbian-issued car number plates. Kosovan-Albanian special police forces have stepped up their presence in Serbian areas, and several ethnic Serbs have been shot and injured.
This year, the government in Pristina backtracked on a 2013 EU-brokered agreement that would grant Serb minorities in the region their own association of elected mayors.
Serbs boycotted the election of new mayors, and ethnic Albanian candidates were elected in four mayoralties, in votes with single-figure turnouts.
Serbs complained the new mayors lacked a legitimate mandate, and when Kosovo-Albanian authorities attempted to install them this week, violent protests broke out.
“This was just the tip of the iceberg,” said Simić, whose party has close links to the Serbian Progressive party of Vučić: “It was the culmination of months of discontent and fear among Serbian minorities.”
Simić criticised the Kosovan prime minister, Albin Kurti, for reneging on his EU-agreed obligation to allow Serbian mayors in the north and accused him of prioritising territorial interests over peace. “Why have they turned municipality buildings into military bases? This is a misuse of power,” he said.
Simić’s Serbian minority party Serb List was created to drive integration efforts after the 2013 Brussels agreement, which aimed to foster integration between Kosovo and Serbia.
However, many of Kosovo’s Serbian minority have resisted integration, and depend on parallel education and health systems funded by Belgrade.
Vučić has promised continued financial aid for Kosovan Serbs and called for Pristina to allow the use of Serbian licence plates with freedom of movement.
But his comments have at times gone beyond expressions of solidarity. On Sunday, the night before the unrest broke out, Vučić gave a live TV address in which he said: “Serbs will certainly protest, Serbs will demand their buildings back, which were usurped from them, which Kurti’s regime took from them with the brutal use of police force.”
His comments were likely interpreted by the protesters as a green light for their actions, said the analyst Jakub Bielamowicz.
Ian Bancroft, a former diplomat who is now a peacebuilding consultant in Belgrade, said: “Whether the attack on Nato forces was ‘ordered’ from Belgrade or provoked by agitators will be hard to prove. But the point is the pot had already been stirred, an accumulation of grievances for the local Serbian community in Kosovo who feel stuck between Pristina and Belgrade. Any agitators would probably reflect the opinion of the local population.”
Grievances have been stoked by misinformation on all sides: Russian Telegram channels spread unverified reports of tanks mobilising at the Kosovo border; Serbian tabloids have claimed Kurti was driving Serbs out of Kosovo; Kosovans have said protesters were bussed in from Serbia to stir up trouble.
Efforts have been made to de-escalate tensions, peacekeepers have engaged in talks, and 700 new Nato troops have been deployed.
But NGOs and analysts in north Kosovo say addressing the demands of the Serbian minoritywill require long-term commitments.
Ivanov of the Henry Jackson Society said: “We need new elections and Serbs need to participate in them.”
