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Zvečan in Kosovo: KFOR soldiers protect a government building with barbed wire.

Photograph:

GEORGI LICOVSKI V EPA

After the clashes in northern Kosovo, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron are planning a joint meeting with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Thursday. According to government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit, the four politicians are to meet on the sidelines of the meeting of the European Political Community in the Republic of Moldova.

In Kosovo itself, soldiers of the international protection force KFOR protected city administration buildings in several places on Wednesday. Ethnic Serbs, as on the previous days, gathered there for demonstrations. According to local media reports, some cars were initially damaged, but the situation remained largely peaceful.

The conflict between the Serb minority and the Albanian majority in Kosovo has escalated again in recent days. The background to this is the local elections of 23 April. The Serbs, who make up the majority of the population in the north, had boycotted the elections. Subsequently, Albanian mayoral candidates also won in municipalities inhabited by a majority of Serbs. Kosovo's government had brought ethnic Albanian mayors into office under police protection in Serb-majority cities in northern Kosovo. Militant Serbs protested violently against this. Dozens of soldiers of the international protection force KFOR were also injured in the clashes.

Serbia's President Vučić is currently under massive pressure in his own country. Two killing sprees with 18 dead had shaken Serbian society at the beginning of the month. During mass protests, his opponents raised the question of responsibility and demanded consequences. The opposition pointed to the president's aggressive rhetoric towards political opponents as well as to tabloid media, which they believe trivialize the violence of criminals and at the same time give Vučić a stage. Vučić then withdrew from the chairmanship of his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), but not from his post as president.

sol/dpa/AFP