The French politician Andréa Kotarac believes that the frozen conflict in Kosovo and Metohija lurks in the shadow of the conflict of Ukraine, threatening to escalate in Europe.

If the violence should escalate in September, Kotarac asks, will Europe defend the Serbian territorial integrity in Kosovo and Metohija the same way it is doing in Ukraine, or will it continue to defend Albanian separatism, which would be the polar opposite of what it is doing in Ukraine.

In an op-ed for the French weekly Valeurs Actuelles, he pointed out that “the barricades, blockades, Kosovo special forces, anti-aircraft sirens and shots fired on July 31 in Mitrovica, in the north of Kosovo And Metohija, along with the conflict between the Serbian population and the Albanian police forces, bear a bitter resemblance to a déjà vu.

Kotarac, who is a high-ranking politician in Marine Le Pen’s party, wrote that “the spark of that July 31 was lit by the decision of the Albanian authorities in Kosovo to impose Kosovo licence plates and personal identification documents in the north, where the majority of the population is Serbian, instead of Serbian licence plates and personal identification documents”.

He reminded that an agreement on movement between Belgrade and Priština was finalized in 2011, as well as that this agreement did not in any way impose it on the Kosovo Serbs to accept passports and licence plates of a self-proclaimed country still not recognized by the United Nations, nor by more than a half of its members.

Kotarac explained that this one-sided decision by Priština, which may appear insignificant in the eyes of outside observers, is certainly no longer such in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and the conflicts with Russia, Serbia’s historical ally.

In his words, the territory of Kosovo and Metohija today resembles a new scene, with operations underway where NATO supporters and the historical allies of the Russians come into conflict, two sides that are already parties in the war in Ukraine, the consequences of which are being felt in the everyday lives of Europeans.

He also reminded that Moscow criticized the Albanian attack right away and supported Serbia, the only country bidding for candidacy in the European Union that has not imposed sanctions on Russia, even though it has condemned the attack on Ukraine.

Kotarac wrote that, apart from the affair with the Albanian licence plates, it should also be understood that the fundamental problems in Kosovo are still frozen and far from being resolved from the positions of the conflicting parties.

In his opinion, those are, first and foremost, the inability of Kosovo to secure international recognition of its independence fourteen years after its one-sided declaration, which, according to him, clearly sounds like a failure for the NATO.

“There no longer is a systemic diplomatic consensus, twenty-two countries have even rescinded their recognition of the independence of Kosovo, such as Ghana or Madagascar,” pointed out Kotarac, who is of Serbian descent.

It is his belief that another stumbling block is the inability for return of the Serbian refugees who were exiled by the Albanian forces of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, that the United States of America had officially considered a terrorist organization until the NATO attack on Serbia, at which point they suddenly turned into an inevitable ally for the Alliance.

Kotarac also pointed out that several years after the war radical Albanians destroyed nearly 150 Serbian cultural and religious monuments, including certain monasteries from the 13th century under the protection of the UNESCO, reminding that this is a lot more than during the five centuries of Turkish occupation in this region.