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France, Germany urge new elections in Kosovo following flare-up in ethnic
tensions

  By JUSTIN SPIKEJune 1, 2023 GMT
  1 of 7
  Left to right, Liechtenstein's Prime Minister Daniel Risch, British
  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen,
  Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, France's President Emmanuel
  Macron, Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzogovina Zeljka
  Cvijanovic, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Kosovo's President
  Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu and Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili
  pose on the podium at a group photo during the European Political
  Community Summit at the Mimi Castle in Bulboaca, Moldova, Thursday,
  June 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)
  1 of 7
  Left to right, Liechtenstein's Prime Minister Daniel Risch, British
  Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen,
  Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, France's President Emmanuel
  Macron, Chair of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzogovina Zeljka
  Cvijanovic, Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Kosovo's President
  Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu and Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili
  pose on the podium at a group photo during the European Political
  Community Summit at the Mimi Castle in Bulboaca, Moldova, Thursday,
  June 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

  BULBOACA, Moldova (AP) — The leaders of France and Germany have urged
  their counterparts in Kosovo and Serbia to agree on holding new
  municipal elections in northern Kosovo, hoping that another ballot
  would quell a flare-up of ethnic tensions that have led to violent
  protests in the region.

  Speaking at a [76]summit in Moldova on Thursday, French President
  Emmanuel Macron said that he and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had
  advocated for fresh mayoral elections in four municipalities and
  questioned the democratic legitimacy of the votes held in northern
  Kosovo in April.

  “What we have asked both parties is very simple: the organization as
  soon as possible for new elections in these four municipalities,”
  Macron said at the European Political Community summit in Bulboaca,
  Moldova. “Four mayors were elected with the votes of less than 5% of
  the voters, which is obviously not a condition of legitimacy.”
  [77]

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  The local elections in question, which were overwhelmingly boycotted by
  Serb residents, saw ethnic Albanian mayors elected in Serb-majority
  towns and resulted in protests. This week, ethnic Serb demonstrators
  [78]clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers, resulting in injuries to 30
  international soldiers and more than 50 protesters, and sparking fears
  of renewed conflict in the troubled region.

  Macron said he and Scholz had conferred with Serbian President
  Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, and urged the
  leaders to consider the recommendations and come back with responses
  next week.

  “It requires bravery by all involved, because they will need to play
  their part in positions of political responsibility to ensure that
  deescalation succeeds,” Scholz said in comments following the Moldova
  summit.

  Scholz said a permanent solution to the longstanding conflict between
  Serbia and its former province Kosovo was close to being reached and
  needs only to be implemented. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a
  move that Serbia does not recognize.

  Osmani on Thursday lashed out at her Serbian counterpart, saying Vucic
  had been untruthful in the Moldova meetings. She described the
  protesters as “criminal gangs.”

  “What is crucial at this point is that Serbia stops supporting these
  criminal gangs that are causing most of the problems in Kosovo’s north,
  but also beyond in our region,” Osmani said.

  Vucic said Serbia’s priority is Kosovo police forces leaving the
  majority-populated Kosovo Serb regions along with the newly installed
  mayors.

  NATO on Tuesday announced it would [79]send an additional 700 troops to
  northern Kosovo to help quell the recent clashes. The latest violence
  in the region has stirred fear of a renewal of the 1998-99 conflict in
  Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than 1 million
  people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has
  lasted nearly a quarter of a century.

  Speaking to reporters in Oslo on Thursday, U.S Secretary of State
  Antony Blinken called on Kosovo and Serbia to “take immediate steps to
  deescalate tensions and make a real effort on normalization
  agreements.”

  “We support the process of European integration for Kosovo and Serbia
  but the current escalation hinders, rather than helps, the efforts in
  that direction,” Blinken said while attending an informal meeting of
  NATO foreign ministers in the Norwegian capital. “We’re looking for
  both to act responsibly.”

  ___

  Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.

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