Minority Serbs in northern Kosovo say they are resigning from their positions in state institutions, including the government, police and courts, to protest the use of new vehicle license plates issued by Pristina. After a meeting of Serbian political representatives in the north of Kosovo, Minister of Communities and Returns Goran Rakic announced that he is resigning from his post in the Pristina government. He told reporters that fellow representatives of the 50,000-strong Serb minority in the north had also resigned from their jobs in municipal administrations, courts, police and the parliament and government in Pristina. The long-running dispute over license plates has fueled tensions between Serbia and the former province of Kosovo, which gained independence in 2008 and is home to a small Serbian minority in the north supported by Belgrade. Kosovo, which is predominantly Albanian, has tried to force some 50,000 Serbs to accept Pristina’s rule over routine bureaucratic matters after a 10-year rebellion against repressive Serbian rule. Kosovo’s government said it will start fining this month Serbian drivers using old pre-independence license plates and confiscate vehicles that have not changed their registration numbers by April 21, 2023. Rakic said they would not consider returning unless Pristina lifted the order. They also demanded the formation of a union of Serb municipalities that would give Serb-majority areas more autonomy, he said. Prime Minister Albin Kurti urged Serbs not to “boycott or abandon the institutions of Kosovo.” “They serve all of us, each and every one of you. Don’t fall prey to political manipulations and geopolitical games,” Kurti added in a Facebook post. Kosovo’s main backers, the United States and the European Union, urged Kurti to delay implementation of the license plate ruling for another 10 months, but he refused. In September, when Kurti announced an October 31 deadline for motorists to switch, he described the decision as “nothing more or less than an expression of the exercise of sovereignty”. Blerim Vela, chief of staff to Kosovo President Viosa Osmani, tweeted that Belgrade was “forcing and inciting Kosovo Serbs to quit their jobs in Kosovo’s institutions.” In Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said her government “stands by our brave and proud people in Kosovo.”
