New Serb List MPs arrive at Parliament unannounced, take oath of office

N1/ Kuštrim Kadiu

New MPs of the Belgrade-backed Serb List arrived unannounced on Thursday at the Kosovo Parliament and took their oath of office.

The ten candidates who were sworn in were recently nominated by the Kosovo Central Election Commission and they are Milan Kostic, Zoran Maksimovic, Olivera Zdravkovic, Milan Joksimovic, Ksenija Bozovic, Rados Mihajlovic, Nenad Radenkovic, Svetislav Jokic, Biljana Maksic from the Serb List and Cvetko Veljkovic of the Citizens Initiative For Freedom, Justice and Survival, said N1’s reported.

Once they were sworn in the Serb MPs left the Parliament building, following which Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti showed up.

The new MPs’ predecessors withdrew from the Kosovo Parliament on November 7 as part of the decision by Serbs in north Kosovo to withdraw from all Kosovo’s institutions over the implementation of Kosovo Government’s decision on the re-registration of vehicles with Serbia-issued license plates.

The nine Serb List MPs technically verified their mandates in the Kosovo Parliament and, by doing so, “kept them in safe hands”, said the Serb List.

The Serb List said this strategic decision most directly prevented the realization of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s plan and that of the Serb he sees as suitable to change the constitution and laws that guarantee the rights of the Serb people in Kosovo.

“The intention of Kurti and Rada Trajkovic, and others like her, was to vote for changes to the constitution that would lead to the abolition of the Serb municipalities, the seizure of the Serbian Orthodox Church property, the abolition of the Serbian language, the right to representation in institutions, etc,” said the press release.

Rada Trajkovic is a Kosovo Serb politician, the leader of the European Movement of Serbs from Kosovo.

Rada Trajkovic said on Twitter that the Serb List took the nine seats in the Kosovo Parliament to prevent her from getting into the Parliament and so to prevent the Serb community in Kosovo from finally having real political representatives.

The Serb List stressed that “this strategic decision will not in any way stop the process of withdrawal from Kosovo’s institutions in the north of Kosovo and Metohija (the official name for what the Serbian authorities consider to be the country’s southern province), which shuts down all Kosovo institutions in this territory as a response to the violation of the Brussels Agreement, harassment of the Serb people and the trampling of all human rights.”

“Finally, we wish to stress that our goal is to protect our people, peace and security, but also to prevent Kurti and Rada Trajkovic from calling the shots for the Serb people and deciding on our lives,” said the Serb List.