BELGRADE, January 19 Serbs in all four municipalities in northern Kosovo have begun collecting signatures for the removal of Albanian heads of administration from their posts and to set a date for new elections, the Kosovo online portal reports.
Kosovo Serbs in the municipalities of Zvecan, Zubin Potok, North Kosovska Mitrovica boycotted the municipal elections on April 23, as a result, candidates of Albanian nationality were elected to the posts of heads of administrations with minimal turnout. Their assumption of office led to months of Serbian protests and several flare-ups in the region.
The Serbian List party announced its readiness to participate in new municipal elections in the fall of 2023 and called on Pristina to set a voting date. Residents of North Kosovska Mitrovica and Leposavic began collecting signatures on a petition for a change of Albanian mayors on January 17, and on Friday they were joined by residents of Zvecan and Zubin Potok.
“The fact is that the current mayor was elected with only a hundred votes, which indicates a lack of legitimacy for him to lead and represent our municipality. The response is now good, the collection of signatures has been going on since the morning and it is still ongoing. We only have about 7 thousand voters and we need 1.3 thousand signatures, but I think we will collect much more,” one of the organizers of the action, Srdjan Vucinic, told the portal.
He clarified that the collection of signatures in Zubin Potok will last three days, the process is organized on the street. The collected signatures will then be submitted to the “electoral commission” in Pristina for approval, after which municipal assemblies are expected to vote on changing mayors and call new elections within 45 days.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated on Thursday that obligations to Serbia, in particular the creation of a Community of Serbian municipalities (communities) in Kosovo, have not been fulfilled for more than 10 years. The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the EU is now rewriting existing agreements in favor of Pristina in such a way that “the Serbs in the north of Kosovo do not have any rights, so that these rights are absolutely artificial, and real power should remain with the Albanians.” The minister added that the EU “should be ashamed” for not resolving the Kosovo problem, despite the 2013 agreements.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday said he had requested a speech to compatriots in Kosovo and Metohija on agreements on the entry of officials between Belgrade and Pristina. Vucic also said that during a meeting with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday he called on her to influence Pristina to refuse the Kosovo Albanian authorities from the initiative to abolish the circulation of the Serbian dinar in Kosovo and Metohija.
The Kosovo Serb party «Serbian List» announced the decision of the «Central Bank» in Pristina that from February 1 the only currency for use in the self-proclaimed republic is the euro, which is an attempt to «expel the Serbs from this territory without weapons» . Kosovo Serb political representatives have called on the international community to stop Pristina's currency initiative, which has been called «classic ethnic cleansing».
Serbian dinars are currently used in the Serb-inhabited areas of Kosovo and Metohija, they come in cash from central Serbia and by bank transfer through the branches of the Poštanska štedionica bank (Post Savings Banks) in the region.