Serbian List: Employees of Serbian institutions will continue to be paid

2025-01-15 23:30:44 / KOSOVA ALFA PRESS

Serbian List: Employees of Serbian institutions will continue to be paid

The leader of the Serbian List, Zlatan Ellek, declared that all employees of parallel Serbian institutions, which were closed on January 15 by the Kosovo authorities, will continue to receive salaries and that this party "will continue to fight by all means and win the elections to protect the Serbian people."

Parliamentary elections in Kosovo will be held on February 9, and the Serbian List is the only political option among the Serbian community that has the support of Belgrade to participate in them.

The Serbian List, following the closure of most institutions operating in the Serbian system south of the Ibar by the Kosovo Government with the support of the police, held a Presidency meeting and drew several conclusions.

Some of them, according to Ellek, are to continue consultations with Serbia on further steps and to seek explanations from the international community “why they support [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti’s actions.”

"Maybe they can temporarily close the buildings, but they cannot stop the assistance of the state of Serbia, nor can they stop the Serbian List from taking care of its people and participating in these elections," he said.

*In the video below you can watch the action to close down Serbian parallel institutions on January 15th.

The heads of the provisional municipal bodies of Vushtrri and Lipjan, which operate in the Serbian system, Milan Kostić and Milan Joksimović, also addressed the journalists.

Kostić stated that 60 employees of the Serbian municipality of Vushtrri will not be left without salaries and that "Kurti has not intimidated them."

Joksimovic said that the municipality of Lipjan has provided services to around 10,000 citizens and that these will not be deprived of services, nor will 150 employees from the Serbian budget be left without salaries.

Otherwise, Kostić and Joksimović are also deputies of the Serbian List in the Kosovo Assembly, but since November 2022 they have boycotted the sessions, only going to sign every six months so as not to lose their mandates and salaries.

When asked by journalists how the Serb List MPs have defended the interests of the Serb community over the past ten years and how many times they have appeared to speak about the problems, Serb List official Igor Simić initially expressed dissatisfaction with "off-topic questions."

He then added that he had spoken in the Kosovo Assembly and that the Serbian List would continue to fight for the interests of the Serbian people and for the presence of Serbia. He said that in November 2022 they made the decision to leave Kosovo institutions to draw the attention of international opinion to the decisions of the Kosovo Government, specifically on the removal of Serbian license plates.

In an additional question about whether they had achieved their goal and why they are now entering the race for parliamentary mandates again, Simić replied: "It seems that we are not staying on topic, please ask questions related to the closure of the provisional bodies."

"In this way, you are diverting attention from something that is important for Serbs, because the closure of ten municipalities that worked in the Serbian system endangers the normal life of tens of thousands of Serbs. I believe that you also have an interest in the Serbian people," said Simić.

He stressed that a way will be found so that no citizen is deprived of the services provided by Serbian institutions and that they are in consultations to achieve this.

Some employees of closed Serbian institutions now go to work in alternative offices located in black containers near the border crossings of Brnjak, Jarinje and Merdare.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced in mid-September the opening of “modern offices” on the Serbian side of the border crossings. He also promised a salary increase for all those traveling to cover their expenses.

Igor Simić also emphasized that Serbia allocates large funds for salaries, pensions or other payments, from which around 75,000 citizens from Kosovo benefit.

The Basic Prosecution Office in Pristina announced on January 15 that it had not given permission to the Kosovo Police to raid locations in municipalities south of the Ibar River due to suspicions that parallel Serbian institutions were operating there.

Meanwhile, the police responded that they acted in cooperation and coordination with the relevant Kosovo institutions, the Ministry of Local Self-Government Administration and the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship and Trade.

The United States, the European Union and Germany on Wednesday opposed the decision of Kosovo authorities to close parallel Serbian institutions in the country, saying they affect Kosovo's goals of joining the Euro-Atlantic community.

Kosovo's institutions consider Serbia's to be illegitimate and their closure began in early 2024.

In addition to the provisional municipal bodies and their public enterprises, the Post of Serbia in the north, the Postal Savings Bank, the Treasury of the National Bank, the Directorate of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the Administrative District of Mitrovica in Kosovo and others were also closed. Mostly only educational and health institutions continued to function, which in Serbian areas also work under the Serbian system./ REL