Vorgučić: Serbs in Kosovo's public services forced to vote for Srpska Lista

Isak Vorgučić, director of Radio Kim, asserts that the outcome of the upcoming elections in Kosovo is predetermined due to coercive voting practices targeting Serbs employed in public institutions. He claims that these individuals are compelled to vote for Srpska Lista, the dominant Serb political party, through various mechanisms linked to their employment and income.

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The outcome of the vote in the upcoming elections in Kosovo will not change, because there are mechanisms by which employees in state institutions are forced to vote for Srpska Lista.

Vorgučić detailed how public sector employees, including those in education and healthcare, face pressure to conform. He noted that many rely on income from Serbia, which can be withheld or controlled based on political compliance. This system, he argues, mirrors practices in central Serbia, where state employees are allegedly pressured to support specific parties.

He expressed bewilderment that some educated Serbs continue to protest, even after colleagues have been arrested and dismissed. Vorgučić suggested that the current climate, where dismissals are politically motivated, should deter participation in protests. He also touched upon the role of Nenad Rašić's party, suggesting its influence within the Kosovo government may have led to the recent arrests of education and health directors for dismissing disloyal staff.

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What is shocking to me is that these people who have significant education and are educated do not realize that this is the moment when no one can force them to go out to protests, because directors who are in detention and who have been fired and ended up behind bars, surely after that no one will be able to get a dismissal that does not have a valid legal basis and is politically motivated, so I am surprised that people still agree to it and go to these protests.

The director also anticipates that the position of the Serb community in Kosovo will be a topic of discussion during European Council President Antonio Costa's visit to Pristina and Belgrade. He believes the EU's stance on Kosovo is tied to Kosovo's treatment of its Serb minority, particularly regarding the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities and careful handling of education and health sectors.

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As you have in central Serbia, so you have mechanisms in Kosovo to force people in public services to vote for the party that the state tells them to, in this case, it is Srpska Lista.