The President of the Party of Kosovo Serbs, Aleksandar Jablanović, met with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
Jablanović himself shared news about the meeting and „friendly talk.“
According to him, their position and common interest are related to the ongoing fight for the Serbs and survival in Kosovo „at the time of the greatest terror and persecution by the Government of Kosovo“:
„Unlike the opposition in Serbia, whose views are close to those of Albin Kurti,“ he added.
In previous years, the president of Serbia, was never photographed, at least publicly, with political representatives of Kosovo Serbs, unless they were members of Srpska Lista.
Jablanović was part of SL in 2013, as the head of the party and one of its founders. For a short time, he served as the Minister for Communities and Return in the Kosovo government as a member of the party.
Two years later, the Government of Serbia decided to remove him from the position of head of the SL.
Jablanović, with his Party of Kosovo Serbs, then became the opposition to Srpska Lista, as well as its fiercest critic in the 10-year-long conflict.
The first incidents between Jablanović’s former party and the one he later founded soon emerged.
At the time, SL accused its former president of pointing a firearm at activists of this party in Leposavic.
According to information available at the time, a few days earlier, unknown perpetrators reportedly shot at the premises of Mayor Leposavic and the Party of Kosovo Serbs.
All this took place before the Kosovo parliamentary elections held on June 11, 2017, the first in which the then newly formed PKS participated on its own. While Belgrade accused Jablanović of being „nominated by Pristina“ for those elections and that he was „flirting with Albanian parties“ and that „voters will punish him in the elections“ for it.
Jablanović also ran for the other Kosovo elections, during which he faced harsh accusations and had arguments with Srpska Lista, in which official Belgrade was often involved.
PKS registered for participation in the last extraordinary elections in the north, first scheduled for December last year, then postponed to April 23 this year.
Jablanović even met with the President of Kosovo, with whom he discussed setting the date for the elections.
„We have not received any official information from the Government of Serbia and the Kosovo Office, which is why Serbs should not run for office and whether Serbia has withdrawn from the Brussels Agreement, that is, from the part related to participation in elections. Secondly, the decision of SL not to run for office and leave the institutions is exclusively a political decision of one party, which is our politically opposed option, and we cannot respect their decision, nor can they decide on our behalf. We were waiting for a signal from Belgrade, but there was none. The third important thing is that we do not want to allow Albanians to take power in Leposavic, where we have the strongest foothold,“ said Jablanović in November of last year, expressing the hope that SL will still register for elections.
Those elections were called after the Serbs from the north left the majority of Kosovo institutions.
Previously, Jablanović often criticized Srpska Lista over their previouslt-announced withdrawals, or freezing their membership in Kosovo institutions, calling them „frozen mackerels“.
At that time, SL urged residents to boycott the elections, and the party did not register for elections.
However, three days before local elections in the north, Jablanović also decided not to participate.
He said that no one influenced such a decision and that he was not forced or pressured by Belgrade, nor by Pristina. He gave up, allegedly, because the conditions for the elections were, as he estimated, inadequate.
Vučić praised Jablanović for his decision not to participate in the elections. „Jablanović’s decision is smart,“ the president said at the time.
„Srpska Lista still remains our biggest opponent. We have been in conflict for 10 years and there is certainly pressure there. There are scores to settle between us that we want to settle in a political way one day. We have some local skirmishes here, they are unreasonable people, they use all kinds of methods, I refuse to stoop to such a level as the methods they use against our activists and candidates,“ Jablanović said on April 20.
Contrary to his claims that no one influenced his decision, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said a few months ago that he „heard that Jablanović received one million euros and two apartments in Belgrade to withdraw from the election.“
At that time, he also made a series of accusations against SL and the Kosovo Office.
The leader of the PKS immediately denied the allegations, while Srpska Lista and the Kosovo Office also responded to Kurti’s claims.
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