International conflict | Ilir Peci, the mayor who won the elections by 41 votes: “I will not return to office until the situation stabilizes”

2023-05-31 08:49:03

Municipal elections with 3.5% participation have once again exploded the powder keg in the Balkans. In a small town in the north of Kosovo called Zvecan, the electoral results of the last municipal ones have provoked protests with unusual violence. Even for a place as unstable as Kosovo, which is the last smoldering territory of the wars that began at the end of the last century. At the moment there are 80 injured.

The reason for the riots is the victory of Ilir Peci, the Albanian candidate, in an area where the majority of the inhabitants are Serbs. The town has 16,650 inhabitants, but only 204 votes have been counted. Why this insignificant participation? Because the Serbs have boycotted these elections. They do not recognize the Kosovar nation and continue to demand the annexation of the area to the Republic of Serbia.

This is the disease endemic to the region called North Kosovo. Because there, right on the border with Serbia, Albanians (majority in the nation, over 90% of the population) and Serbs (majority in this northern area) converge. irreconcilable enemies. Coexistence is almost impossible and the atmosphere, at times, unbreathable. A situation in which not only Zvecan finds itself, but also the neighboring municipalities of Zubin-Potok, Mitrovica norte and Leposavic.

3.5% participation

The Serbian boycott (in some polling stations, such as Velje Breg, not a single vote was registered all day) caused a very low turnout (around 3.5%) and anomalous results. Of the 204 ballots registered in Zvecan, 114 went to the Kosovo Democratic Party led by Ilir Peci. The second most voted party was the Self-Determination Movement (LVV), which got 73 votes. With the vote concluded, the Albanian Peci became the new mayor of a city in which it is estimated that of its 16,650 inhabitants, at least 15,000 are Serbs.

The protests did not wait. Radical Serbian nationalists took to the streets to protest the result and boycotted the appointment, as well as Peci’s entrance to the City Council. The riots began on Monday, when they tried to enter the municipal offices. The Kosovar police, supported by KFOR (NATO forces, permanently based in the country) repelled the attack with tear gas. While the new Albanian authorities removed the Serbian flag from the consistory and placed the Kosovar flag, which the Serbs consider illegitimate.

It was precisely the KFOR forces that began to use batons and shields to disperse the Serb protesters, who responded by throwing glass bottles and Molotov cocktails. Several of the security forces agents were hit by the rain of objects. According to the local Kosovar press, 80’s wounded50 are protesters and 30, police officers.

Ilir Peci has gone from “we will work to give a peaceful life to all the citizens of Zvecan, without exception and without distinction of their origin” that he said during his inauguration, to “I will not return to the office until the situation stabilizes”. They have been the last statements of him from a facility called the Office of the Communities, which is located in Lipë. A nearby village with an Albanian majority. “Here we are fine and there are no protesters,” concluded Peci, who hopes to meet with the US ambassador in the coming days. The Serbs, for their part, continue to show muscle in the streets and do not let him enter the City Hall.