The future of the normalisation talks between Serbia and Kosovo may depend on the results of Serbia’s parliamentary elections. In any case, as long as Aleksandar Vucic will be the president of Serbia he will try to remain the sole mastermind and decision maker for the destiny of the longest territorial dispute in the Balkans.

The citizens of Serbia and Kosovo support the dialogue, but it is not clear to them what exactly Belgrade and Pristina are negotiating about. The dialogue has not improved mutual relations, nor do citizens feel personal benefit from it. At the interpersonal level, the ethnic distance between Serbs and Albanians is great and most would not accept the other as a family member or superior at work. This could change if politicians and the media close to them change their current narratives, it was pointed out during event co-organized by the Belgrade Centrr for Security Policy (BCSP), Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Kosovo Center for Security Studies (KCSS) on December 7th.