Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić met with French President Emmanuel Macron Thursday on the sidelines of the European Political Community summit in Chișinău, Moldova.
Both leaders discussed further steps to be taken in maintaining peace and stability throughout the Western Balkans.
“I expressed my concerns over the latest escalation of violence in ‘Kosovo and Metohija’ and I thanked him for the stance and decisive support towards Serbia, in regards to the latest developments,” said Vučić.
President Macron said Wednesday that the authorities in Kosovo bear responsibility of the tensions in the northern municipalities of the country, where a majority of Serbs live.
In a CNN interview Wednesday evening, Vučić said Serbia is pleased with the French President’s declarations on the Kosovo crisis, as well as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken who condemned Kosovo’s actions, which are escalating tensions in the north and are increasing instability.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister on the other hand, said that this situation is the result of “armed gangs, pretending to be protesters, but are in fact criminal mobs” of Serbia.
“I can of course envisage the reduction of the [presence of] Kosovo Police in the municipal building [in the north], when these criminal gangs of nationalism and extreme right chauvinism, which worship Milošević and Putin,” said Kurti in an address to journalists.
“Either let them go to Serbia, or we must send them to prison. However, these is no way that we will not protect the assets and the buildings of the Republic from such mobs. When they leave, we will be able to reduce the presence,” Kurti concluded.
Ethnic Serbs continue protesting against the newly elected Albanian mayors in the northern municipalities of Kosovo.
Tensions spiked on May 26th when the Kosovo Police assisted the mayors into their municipal offices, despite local Serbs’ resistance.
30 KFOR soldiers sustained injuries in the municipality of Zvečan, as well as tens of protesters involved in violent clashes.
NATO said it is ready to deploy additional troops to Kosovo, while the Serbian Army remains at high-level combat readiness following orders from President Vučić.
