MADRID, May 19th. (EUROPEAN PRESS) –

The governments of the United States, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom on Thursday sought “urgent” collaboration from local Kosovo communities to reach a “political solution”, after local elections were held under a complete boycott of Serbia in a new episode of escalating tensions that have dominated the region for about a year and a half.

“We call on all actors to urgently collaborate among all stakeholders, including local communities, towards solutions that deliver sustainable participatory representative democracy in these cities,” the joint statement read.

In this regard, these countries have commented that “no act or initiative — including newly elected mayors and municipal assemblies — should not serve the population or which could escalate tensions.”

“All parties must refrain from using force or actions that exacerbate tensions or lead to conflict,” they said, adding that they supported the dialogue facilitated by the European Union to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.

The signatory countries are referring to elections held on April 23 in northern Kosovo, in which four mayors and two municipal assemblies were elected. “After boycotting most of the Serbian community, the results do not represent a long-term political solution for these cities,” they lamented.

Just 3.4 percent of the population cast their ballots in local elections in the majority Serb towns of Kosovar, whose residents and their flagship party, the Serbian List, were roundly boycotted. Election officials from Serbia and Kosovo agreed on their turnout figures, citing only 1,557 ballots.

The election took place precisely because of the institutional void left by the Serb mayor of Kosovo who resigned from office to denounce the campaign of abuse by the Government of Kosovo, representative of the Kosovo Albanian population. This resignation is just one more episode of the crisis that broke out in September 2021 between Serbia and Kosovo over the authority of STNK and which worsened for several weeks.

North Kosovo thus became the site of attacks on European Union mission patrols, arrests of former Kosovo Serb policemen and, at the height of hostilities late last year, the building of barricades by Kosovo Serb residents.

This maneuver saw Kosovo deploy its troops on its northern border, a decision Belgrade responded with an almost unprecedented initiative: a request to NATO to deploy a Serbian Army in the area, which never came to fruition.