Aleksandar Arsenijević, a Serbian politician from North Mitrovica, announced via a video address on Facebook that he has removed flags from the city’s central square.
In his address, Arsenijević accused municipal authorities of deliberately trying to humiliate Serbs in the northern part of the city.
“We are here on the promenade in North Mitrovica, where, as you can see, flags have been placed as a provocation. They don’t allow us to react or remove them and have installed lighting to emphasize this humiliation. Their goal is to destroy all our national symbols and degrade us,” said Arsenijević.
He further criticized the festive programming in South Mitrovica, primarily populated by Albanians, which he referred to as a “so-called New Year’s celebration,” contrasting it with what he perceives as targeted actions against Serbs in the north.
Observers have pointed out that Arsenijević’s actions and rhetoric, particularly sharing the video on Facebook, appear to be a propaganda move aimed at instilling fear among the Serbian population in North Mitrovica and inciting ethnic tensions. Such statements risk escalating the already fragile relations between communities in the region.
