The voice of the Albanians in the Assembly of Serbia

This is what Shaip Kamberi, representative of the “Coalition of Albanians of the Valley”, said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, a list that won a mandate in the Serbian Assembly after the elections were repeated several times in Ternoci-e-Madh, in the south of Serbia.

The Republican Election Commission on July 5 confirmed the final results of the Serbian parliamentary elections that were held on April 3 and also confirmed that this list of Albanians won a mandate in the Assembly.

With this, the Assembly of Serbia won another opposition vote, the only one that can speak directly on behalf of the Albanian national minority.
But it took three months for the Albanians to win a mandate. The elections in Tërnocin e Madh, a village in the Municipality of Bujanoci, were repeated four times and only on the fifth time, on June 30, the voting ended without any complaints.

The epilogue at the end was 698 votes for Kamber’s list out of 725 voters. Kamber’s list won the mandate instead of the Socialist Party of Serbia, a long-time partner of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. Because of this single mandate, the vote was repeated several times.

Priority, economic development

Kamberi, who was also a deputy in the previous parliamentary legislature, said that during the past mandate, the position of Albanians living in the south of Serbia has not improved significantly, therefore he will not change the priorities of his activity in the Assembly.

According to him, the priorities of the Albanians living in the south of Serbia are defined in the “Seven Point Plan”, a document that the representatives of the Albanians sent to the Serbian Government almost a decade ago.

“First of all, it is the integration of Albanians in state and public institutions. These are the problems and issues that exist in education, especially the issue of recognition of diplomas and, of course, the economic development of this region”. Kamberi said.

Among other priorities, Kamberi mentioned the economic development in the south of Serbia. It is estimated that close to 60,000 Albanians live in Serbia, mainly in three municipalities in the south of the country: Preshevo, Medvegja and Bujanoc.

These three municipalities are among the most underdeveloped municipalities in Serbia. There is no accurate data on the number of unemployed people, but the mayor of the Municipality of Preševo, Ardita Sinani, declared for BIRN in May 2021 that unemployment in her municipality was around 70 percent.

“Due to the lack of jobs, many young people, Albanians and Roma, are leaving here, therefore the economic development of this part will be one of our priorities and it should also be a priority of the new Government”, said Kamberi.

Correction factor

Naim Leo Beshiri from the non-governmental Institute for European Affairs, told Radio Free Europe that he does not expect any different dynamics in the work of the Assembly after receiving the mandate of the deputy from the “Coalition of Albanians of the Valley”.

“The representative of the Albanians was in the opposition in the previous legislature and is expected to be so in this legislature as well”, said Beshiri.

In the last legislature, Shaip Kamberi was the chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the United Valley – SDA Sanxhak.

During the year and a half that legislature was in office, Kamberi was one of the few critical voices in the Assembly, as most of the opposition boycotted the elections that were held in June 2020.

Kamberi accused the Government led by the Serbian Progressive Party of autocracy and totalitarianism and said that in Serbia “xenophobia is flourishing” and threats are being made against non-majority communities.

The Assembly is the place where it is good to hear the voice of the non-majority communities, Beshiri said, but emphasized that the representative of the Albanians in the Serbian Assembly will face restrictions.

“So far it has proven to be a good corrective factor. Kamber’s speeches in the Assembly have been observed several times, but if he acts as an independent deputy, according to the rules of the Assembly, he will have very little time to present his arguments“, said Beshiri.

Greetings from the region

Since June 30, Kamberi and the “Coalition of Albanians of the Valley” have received numerous congratulations from the country and the region. Among the people who congratulated Kamberi was the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, as well as Ermina Lekaj Përlaskaj, an Albanian deputy in the Croatian Parliament.

“In the Assembly of Serbia, we have the only Albanian deputy who will be the voice of the Albanians. Although we know that it is difficult to realize the rights of Albanians there, Shaip’s voice will still be a window for the EU, which will show that Serbia violates the elementary rights of Albanians”. she wrote on Facebook.

Kamberi said that in the exhausting struggle to win the mandate of the deputy in the Assembly of Serbia, they certainly would not have succeeded without the friends and officials who have supported the candidacy and the need of the Albanians to fight for the mandate of the deputy.

“As for the support of officials from Kosovo and Albania, I think it’s a good signal because the fact is that they want us to integrate into this society, which contributes to the stability that the entire Balkans is striving for”said Kamberi.

Who can the representative of the Albanians cooperate with?
The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), which is led by the current president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, will have 120 deputies in the new parliamentary legislation and alone will not be able to form a parliamentary majority.

The United Opposition of Serbia led by the Party for Freedom and Justice of Dragan Gjilas has won 38 seats in the new Assembly.

The former partner of Vučić’s party, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), won 31 mandates.

The coalition of the left-wing Greens, Moramo (We Must) won 12 seats. There are also several right-wing parliamentary parties, Zavetnici (The Sworn) and Dveri with ten MPs and the NADA (Hope) coalition with 15 MPs.

Among the lists representing the non-majority communities in the new legislature will be: the Party of Hungarians of Vojvodina (SVM) with six MPs, the Party of Justice and Reconciliation with three, and SDA Sanxak and Together for Vojvodina with two MPs each.

Kamberi said that it is good that there will be more opposition MPs in the new legislature, because it is, at least formally, a reflection of democracy and parliamentarism. He added that he hopes that he will be able to raise various issues that will be of common interest with other opposition MPs.

“We will continue cooperation with the Democratic Action Party [SDA] Sanjak and we will see who we can cooperate with. We can certainly cooperate with all those parties that want common values, that is, first of all with the European Union and with the values ​​that the EU represents“, said Kamberi.

Asked by REL how he sees cooperation with democratic opposition parties, which do not recognize the independence of Kosovo, such as the Party for Freedom and Justice and the People’s Party, Kamberi said that cooperation with such parties is impossible.
“Our position on the independence of Kosovo is clear. Kosovo’s independence is recognized and this cannot be changed. Any other interpretation is a denial of reality and fraud of the voters. For this reason, we cannot cooperate with these political options”, said Kamberi.

He emphasized that a common advocacy for European integration, without a clear stance on Kosovo’s independence, is not a strong enough argument for eventual cooperation in the Serbian Assembly and that the Kosovo issue is directly related to the European integration process.

“On the issue of European integration, our position is also clear. The whole process must be accelerated and European integration must be the main objective of the foreign policy of the new Government. The policy of sitting in many seats has only damaged the EU integration process and this must be stopped”, said Kamberi.

In the new legislature of the Assembly of Serbia, Shaip Kamberi will be in a specific position, unlike the last mandate when he was the only deputy of the opposition, now he will be the only deputy in the Serbian Assembly who recognizes the independence of Kosovo.

His previous parliamentary mandate was characterized by a long speech at the session for the election of the Government, in which he harshly criticized the Government of Aleksandar Vučić and accused it of destroying democracy.

In the new legislature, Kamberi hopes that he will be able to initiate a series of important topics for the Albanian community, but also for all the citizens of Serbia. One of these initiatives, he said, will be the signing of the final agreement with Kosovo.

A fragmented opposition

Naim Leo Beshiri ruled out the possibility that the deputy of the “Coalition of Albanians of the Valley” cooperates with the deputies of right-wing parties, such as those of the Party of Hungarians of Vojvodina.

“The Party of the Hungarians of Vojvodina is quite close to the party of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, and until now has always been in the governing majority or has supported the Government in the Assembly. So he won’t be able to cooperate much with this party either“, said Beshiri.

When talking about larger opposition coalitions, such as the United Opposition of Serbia and Moramo, Beshiri said that there are some frictions within these blocs, so now it is not easy to talk about their cooperation with other parliamentary groups.

“It is clear that the opposition is very fragmented and that although it will bring a significantly greater dynamic to the parliamentary discussions, it will be difficult for them to agree on common actions, therefore we may have a turbulent parliamentary period“, Beshiri assessed.

The many problems of the Albanian community in Serbia

The representatives of the Albanians in Serbia have been raising their voice for years about the problems faced by the Albanian community. At the beginning of June, lobbying began in the United States to put the issue of the Preshevo, Medvegja and Bujanoc municipalities on the agenda of the United Nations – also known as the Preshevo Valley, where the majority of the Albanian population lives.

As the chairman of the National Council of Albanians, Ragmi Mustafi, had explained to REL, their proposal is to establish “unified standards for the treatment of national minorities” in parallel with the normalization of relations between Pristina and Belgrade.
Likewise, in 2013, representatives of Albanians from three municipalities in the south of Serbia submitted to the Serbian Government the “Seven-Point Plan”, in which the problems of the Albanian community in the south of Serbia and their proposals for solving these problems were presented.

This plan also proposes the full integration of Albanians in state institutions in accordance with the proportional participation in the population of each local self-government, the relocation of special police forces and the creation of appropriate conditions for the return of the displaced population.

The plan also proposes rapid economic recovery in the municipalities in the Presheva Valley as well as the decentralization of the judicial system.

The document also highlights the problems with the recognition of diplomas issued in Kosovo and the problem of the lack of school textbooks.

So far, only the last issue has been resolved. At the end of 2021, representatives of the Ministry of Education of Serbia and the National Council of Albanians reached an agreement on textbooks in the mother tongue for students of the Albanian community.

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