Albanians are trying to get into power in the largest Serbian enclave of Kosovo
The Albanian parties of the largest Serbian enclave of Kosovo, North Mitrovica, have united to act as a united front in the local elections on October 17 and push the maximum number of their deputies into the municipal Assembly.
Thus, the Albanian elite of the region wants to take control of Northern Mitrovica.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, in the largest Serbian enclave - Kosovo (North) Mitrovica, the Albanian "Civic Initiative of Mitrovica" and its leader Skender Sadiq were joined by representatives of the leading Kosovo parties - the Self-Determination Movement, the Democratic League of Kosovo, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo , Alliance for a New Kosovo. Bekim Salihu from the GAP Institute, which studies local government, predicted to Kosovo Press that the unification of Albanian parties in North Mitrovica will increase the Albanian presence in the local Assembly by two deputies, making a total of four.
A similar situation developed in Novo Brdo, however, according to the head of the local Self-Determination cell, Abdili Gashi, only the party of former field commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army responded to the call to unite there (KLA) – Democratic Party of Kosovo.
“In Novo Brdo we have only a symbolic unification, so it is not expected that it will have any impact on the results of the local elections, but in North Mitrovica the consequences of the unification will be significant, because the number of Albanian deputies in the Assembly will increase by two people,” - noted Salihu.
He added that in other Serb-majority municipalities there are not many non-Serb voters and cooperation between Albanian parties would not have any effect there. In turn, the leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, a war criminal acquitted by the Hague Tribunal Ramush Haradinaj stated that he had ordered all members of his party to support the Albanian list in the October 17 elections in North Mitrovica.
“Wherever there is a list of Albanians in municipalities with a predominantly Serb population, we support this list, we are not against Serbs from Kosovo, they are citizens of Kosovo,” Haradinaj said.
“The fortress wall that we built for the sake of the survival of our people will definitely not be able to be broken - Gracanica will not be conquered,” the mayor of North Mitrovica, a member of the Serbian List party, Srdjan Popovic, commented on the efforts of the Albanians to the Serbian edition of Sputnik radio.
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