Serbia’s President Was Real Loser in Kosovo Election

The constitution of Kosovo guarantees the Serbian community one minister in government. Kurti claims the Serbs will be represented in the future government - but not by SL. He believes that Srpska Lista is not really a party but a state, meaning Serbia.

That means Kurti will refuse to make any deal with Vucic, who was a coalition partner in Haradinaj's former government via the SL, which held three ministries and one vice-PM's post. It goes without saying that Vucic doesn't like this attitude at all.

It is possible that Kurti's friends in the EU and the US will pressure him into giving the SL one ministerial place. But even if that scenario becomes reality, it won't be of much importance to Vucic, since the SL's influence will still be marginal.

Albin Kurti, founder of the Vetevendosje. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Things were different before. Vucic's people had secret communications with Haradinaj. The former prime minister on several occasions mentioned reaching agreements on many issues with Milan Radojicic, an informal representative of the Serbs in Kosovo. For a long time, Radojicic had no formal function but he was the one making decisions about everything in the Serb-run north of Kosovo.

He is now in hiding, after a court in Prishtina issued a wanted notice against him because of suspicions that he was involved in the assassination of the moderate Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic. Ivanovic was held in great esteem by the public, but was not under Vucic's control.

Another blow to Vucic is the preliminary conclusion of the Election Observation Mission of the European Union, which concluded that "the campaign environment in the [election in] Kosovo Serb areas was marred by intimidation, which targeted non-SL...