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16:43 POLITICS

The majority reveals the plan for the Territorial Reform/ Some municipalities are "merged", here are the changes

The Co-Chair of the Committee for Administrative-Territori...

After the statement on Kosovo/ Over 50 opposition MPs in Serbia demand the dismissal of Minister Paunovic

2026-07-16 16:06:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

After the statement on Kosovo/ Over 50 opposition MPs in Serbia demand the

The only Albanian MP in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi, announced on Thursday that 53 opposition MPs have submitted a request to the Serbian Prime Minister for the dismissal of Minister Snezhana Paunovic, following her statement about "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo.

In a Facebook post, Kamberi said that the parliamentary group Movement of Free Citizens - SDA of Sandzak and the Party for Democratic Action initiated the dismissal of the Serbian Minister for Public Administration and Local Self-Government.

They asked Serbian Prime Minister Gjuro Macu to, "without any delay," propose to the Serbian Parliament the dismissal of Minister Paunovic, who was declared an "undesirable" person in Kosovo.

It is not clear whether Macut will make such a proposal to the 250-seat Serbian Parliament.

Paunovic told Serbian television station Kurir on Saturday that, if he had been in Slobodan Milosevic's place in 1998, he "would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo" - prompting reactions and condemnation in Kosovo and beyond.

Milosevic was president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and indicted by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes.

Kamberi stressed on Thursday that Prime Minister Macut has a political and institutional responsibility to react and prove that there is no place in the Government of Serbia for a minister who defends the ideas of expelling people on the basis of their national affiliation and who promotes actions outside the law and judicial procedures.

"If Macut refuses to propose her dismissal, he will take responsibility for continuing her mandate in this position and for normalizing such a policy within the Government of Serbia," he said.

Kamberi indicated that their initiative was not supported by the national minority parties, which are part of the Government.

"So, the dismissal of Minister Paunovi? was not supported by either Zukorli?'s Bosnian party, Laji?'s Bosnian party, or Pastor's Hungarian party," he added.

Paunovi?'s statements were condemned by the European Union and Kosovo, while Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? said that her comments "do not reflect my will, nor the will of the Government of Serbia."

On Thursday, European Union Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos reiterated her condemnation of Paunovi?'s statements and expressed surprise that she continues to remain a minister.

Observers from Kosovo and Serbia told Radio Free Europe that Paunovi?'s statement is part of a political model of Serbia towards Kosovo, demanding that the international community not be satisfied with just reactions, but take concrete actions against Serbia.

Her statements touch on old wounds in Kosovo, as hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians were expelled from Kosovo during the 1998-1999 war.

That war took the lives of over 13,000 civilians, mostly Albanians, while thousands more remained missing.

Over 1,500 people, mostly Albanians, are still missing.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague named the then leaders of the FRY as key participants in a “joint criminal enterprise” aimed at the forcible expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians from Kosovo in 1999.

According to the verdicts, the goal was to “change the ethnic balance to maintain Serbian control over Kosovo.”

The main defendant, Slobodan Milosevic, died in custody before the trial ended, while former Serbian President Milan Milutinovic was found not guilty./REL