The petition for the recall of the mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atić, started today at 9:00 in the municipal sports hall. Several hundred citizens gathered in front of the hall, waiting for their turn to sign the petition, including both former and current top Srpska Lista officials, all of whom refused to give statements. On the other hand, citizens who agreed to speak to the media underlined that they want a Serb to return to the post of mayor.
A large group of citizens started gathering in front of the sports hall early this morning. According to unconfirmed information, mainly employees of Serbian institutions in Kosovo received invitations to respond to the petition yesterday.
The signing was well organized, with over ten signature collectors in the hall itself.
The petition was signed this morning by the top leaders of Srpska Lista. The president of this party, Zlatan Elek, as well as Igor Simić, Goran Rakić, Dragiša Milović and Ivan Zaporožac signed the petition.
They did so without comment, refusing to speak to the media, despite numerous inquiries by our reporter present at the scene.
Igor Simić refused to give a statement before, as well as after he signed the petition.
Goran Rakić also refused to comment on the signing of the petition, but also on all the events that preceded it. Rakić did not want to answer one specific question posed by our reporter – How did this situation come to be – from leaving the institutions and setting conditions, now through a petition signed by the citizens, you are asking to return to those institutions?
On the other hand, Zlatan Elek, at the very moment when we asked him for a comment – made a phone call.
Dragiša Milović said that could not give us a statement due to health issues.
North Mitrovica residents, hundreds of whom were present today, were also not in the mood to give statements.
However, the few who agreed to speak to our reporter have no doubt that the post of mayor of the municipality of North Mitrovica should be a Serb because:
„The municipality of North Mitrovica belongs to the Serbian people and it is mostly inhabited by the Serbian people and the mayor should be from the ranks of the Serbian people. The mayor cannot come from a minority community, one that received two, three percent – of the turnout cannot be the mayor.”
The same resident, Zoran Bratić, a longtime municipal employee, revealed that this is why he supported the petition today.
On the other hand, he believes that the Serbs should never have left Kosovo institutions and boycotted the elections, which led to this.
„Serbs should not have left those institutions and we should have participated in the last elections. North Mitrovica is Serbian, and the Serbs will always win and have their own mayor.“
Another resident, who agreed to give a short statement, shared a similar stance.
He believes that the current situation – of a Serb-majority town being headed by an individual from a minority community – is „not realistic“.
When asked about the events that preceded the petition, the individual had no comment.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
