Serbian Parties Take Campaign to Kosovo

Two weeks ahead of early parliamentary elections in Serbia, most Serbian political parties are busy drumming up support among the Serbs in Kosovo - only some of whom, ironically, can vote in the election. Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the ruling Progressive Party, told locals in the Serb-run north of Kosovo on Thursday that his party guaranteed them security and survival."Serbs will survive and remain safe in any place in Kosovo" Vucic assured a rally in the town of Leposavic. Vucic said the EU-mediated talks with Kosovo on normalising relations had been difficult, but it remained important to realize goals in a prudent fashion for Serbs as a whole. He was referring to the historic deal that Serbia and Kosovo signed last April on normalisation of relations - a move that most Kosovo Serbs strongly opposed. As part of the agreement, Serbian elections cannot be officially organised in Kosovo. Kosovo has said it will only allow centres for collecting the ballots of those who have dual citizenship, which can be taken to Serbia for counting. The Socialist Party has also scheduled rallies in the former Serbian province, which declared independence in 2008. The Democratic Party of Serbia told BIRN that it has scheduled several rallies for the coming days in Kosovo. The hardline nationalist Serbian Radical Party along with its coalition partners, the right-wing Obraz and Nasi movements, started campaigning in the north Kosovo town of Mitrovica ten days ago."We started a campaign with the slogan 'Both Kosovo and Russia,'" said Zoran Krasic of the Radicals - who remain fiercely opposed to any moves towards the EU, or towards normalising ties with the Albanian-dominated authorities in Kosovo.