The Serbian president has expressed outrage at the appointment of Kosovo’s minister for ethnic groups.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he would boycott a planned summit between the European Union and six Western Balkan countries out of anger with the Kosovo government.
Vucic announced his decision to skip the meeting in an angry interview on pro-Serbian government Pink TV on Thursday.
Vucic was outraged when Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti chose a moderate Kosovo-Serbian politician, rather than a figure with close ties to Serbia’s ruling party, to be the minister in charge of Kosovo’s ethnic groups. .
The position of minister is usually held by a member of the Serbian List (SL) party, which closely coordinates its policies with Vucic’s government in Belgrade.
But instead, Kurti tapped Nenad Rasic, a member of the moderate Radical Democratic Party, not controlled by the government in Belgrade.
This move took place in the midst of increased tension Between Kosovo and Serbia, which once controlled Kosovo and still refuses to recognize its independence.
‘Pathetic anti-Serb attitude’
In a televised interview, Vucic denounced Kosovan as a “terrorist scum” and claimed the EU would show a “pathetic anti-Serb attitude” at the Balkan summit.
Vucic also stated that Kurti’s appointment of Rasic “shows that they want the Serbs to be expelled from Kosovo”.
Ethnic Albanians make up the majority of people living in Kosovo, but there are ethnic Serbs as well as Bosniaks, Turks and Roma communities in this small Balkan country.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
It remains possible that Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic could represent Serbia at the EU summit in Tirana even after Vucic’s angry decision not to attend.
