The Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, said that he saw no reason to have a festival like “Mirëdita, dobar dan” in Serbia, stressing that he personally believes that the best response to the organizers of the event is “ignorance”.
On June 27, the authorities in Serbia banned the holding of the festival, the purpose of which is to improve cultural cooperation between the artists of Kosovo and Serbia.
“I was thinking, I see no reason for such a festival in Serbia”, said the Serbian Prime Minister, Vučević.
A day after far-right groups and fans gathered in Dorqol Square, where the “Mirëdita, dobar dan” festival was scheduled to open, Vučević said that they “did everything to show that Serbia is a country that accepts those who don’t have good intentions towards the state and our people”.
When asked by journalists why the state did not guarantee security for festival participants, Vučević said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Security and Information Agency (BIA), “assessed that there was a great risk of disrupting public order and peace , and danger to the property and safety of citizens”.
“It is not worth it for us to have a civil war in the streets and chaos. For us, to have police, property and people dying to protect the gold that tells us we are terrorists, criminals, genocidal people. You know what, our assessment is that this is the best decision considering the circumstances”, Vučević said.
He added that there were “various proposals” from other government ministers regarding holding the festival.
“You told [the ministers] that the best response to them [the organizers] is to ignore them,” said the Serbian prime minister.
The organizers of the event – which has been held since 2014 sometimes in Kosovo and sometimes in Serbia – said that by banning the holding of the “Mirëdita, dobar dan” festival in Belgrade, the state aligned itself with the hooligans.
Far-right groups gathered in front of the space where the festival was planned to be held, before it officially started. Protesters blocked the entrance to the festival, while few police officers were seen there.
The state authorities in Kosovo have condemned the Serbian Government’s decision to ban the holding of the “Mirëdita, dobar dan” festival./rel
