Gasic rules out cooperation with Serbian List in Kosovo
Student List candidate Jugoslav Gasic, in his first public stance since the election, rejects working with the Serbian List and promises a review of the Brussels Agreement.
Jugoslav Gasic, the Student List candidate for the National Assembly of Serbia, told RTS that there will be no cooperation with the Serbian List, including its members of parliament in the assembly in Pristina. Radio Kontakt Plus and Espreso carried the interview, his first public stance since the October 25 election. Gasic also announced that the representatives of the new government in Belgrade will review what was agreed in the Brussels Agreement and other international arrangements.
The Student List has not yet formed a government, as Gasic himself stresses. According to figures from the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK), the Student List won 140 seats in the October 25 election and Vucic’s list won 103. Everything that follows is Gasic’s announcements and claims, not decisions of any institution.
What did Gasic say about the Serbian List?
The interviewer asked how the Student List would work with the representatives of Serbs in the institutions in Pristina, given that they cannot be replaced without new elections, at the central and local level alike. Gasic answered that this concerns not only the local level but also the deputies in the central assembly.
“There is no cooperation with the Serbian List. With someone who has been the main culprit, the one responsible for the position of the Serbs all this time, there is truly no cooperation whatsoever.”
He added that these people hold institutional positions the Student List cannot affect, but that those positions will not shield them from criminal liability.
“They hold certain institutional positions that we cannot influence, but those positions will not protect them from potential criminal liability for what they have done. There are various mechanisms, and most importantly, they will be monitored.”
Gasic took the same line earlier, in an interview published by Radio Kim and attributed by Mondo to Radio Kosovo and Metohija. He said then that the Serbian List “was the contractor of the SNS on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, with utterly disastrous results”. The sources we reviewed contain no response from the Serbian List to these statements. Radio Kim reported that the party had not publicly commented on the results, or answered journalists’ questions, several days after the election.
What did he announce on the Brussels Agreement?
Gasic says he has information about serious arrangements on integrating education and health care into the Kosovo system. The first step, he says, is to see what has been signed.
“I have some information that there are serious arrangements regarding the integration of education and health care, so the first thing we have to do is see what they have done so far, and then look at that as a potential space for us to act, and if we can, to stop something of it and halt this spiral of decline of the Serbian people.”
In a similar vein, Ilija Srdanovic, the first name on the Student List ticket, told Radio Free Europe on October 27 that the 2013 Brussels Agreement can be reviewed and that continuing the dialogue on Kosovo is a core part of their plan. Decisions on strategic questions, he said, will be made once a government is formed.
Gazivode, wages and pensions
Gasic claims that the authorities, despite earlier assurances, “gave away Gazivode”. As a result, he says, Serbs from the north travel to central Serbia to buy medicine at the pharmacy and to withdraw pensions and wages at a cash machine, because, in his words, “there is no dinar”. In Kosovska Mitrovica, he says, there used to be Serbian flags on every corner, and now there is not a single one.
“We lost, or rather they gave away Gazivode, and they kept saying they would not give it away. They said there is no surrender, that Kosovo and Metohija remains, that there is no more Kosovo and Metohija. And the people simply saw that the story they push has nothing whatsoever to do with reality, and that their patriotism, in fact quasi-patriotism, is a betrayal of the national interests of the Serbs in Kosovo.”
He urged Serbs in Kosovo not to believe rumors that they will lose their earnings and social assistance. According to him, no financial aid will be cut off.
“So everything that is received will continue to be received, we will even insist on expanding that amount, but those who receive it without being entitled to it, we will cut that off once and for all and stop it, and the distribution of financial aid will be fair, not conditioned on support for the Serbian List as it has been until now.”
What does he expect from the change of government in Belgrade?
Gasic said that any change in Belgrade, even a cosmetic reshuffle of the government, affects Kosovo and Metohija, and that this one will have a bigger effect:
“A change of government that is a political earthquake, where we sent the SNS into history, will undoubtedly have quite a lot of effects on the political reality in Kosovo and Metohija, and I expect on the everyday life of people as well.”
Asked who will represent the Student List in Kosovo and Metohija, Gasic said that teams bringing together people from different fields will be formed in the coming period. His announcements on the Brussels Agreement and on aid to Kosovo Serbs will be tested only once the new government is formed.
