Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić made an unannounced visit to the Presheva Valley several days ago, where he met with Serb citizens living in the area.
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During his visit, Vučić assured one citizen that Serbia’s Security Intelligence Agency (BIA) would contact him or his son within 48 hours regarding a possible job.
The visit took place just one day after a delegation of Albanian politicians had visited Tirana. The meeting discussed opening an Albanian Consulate in Bujanoc as a reciprocal measure following the opening of the Serbian Consulate in Shkodra.
The timing and circumstances of the Serbian president’s visit have prompted reactions and questions about its political message, particularly with regard to the position of Albanians in the Presheva Valley.
Commentator Nehat Hyseni told “Bota sot” that Vučić’s promise could not be treated simply as an isolated case. According to him, it raises broader concerns about the functioning of security institutions and the way Albanians are treated in the region.
Hyseni said Aleksandar Vučić’s statement that a citizen or his son would be contacted by the BIA within 48 hours about a job opportunity required serious attention and analysis beyond the individual’s personal interest.
He stressed that no one’s right to seek employment and secure a dignified life in their own country was in question. On the contrary, he said, employment is a fundamental right, and the state has an obligation to provide equal opportunities for everyone. The problem, he said, lies in the fact that the head of state publicly and directly promised the intervention of a security agency to secure employment within 48 hours, giving the matter a clear political, institutional and distinctly anti-Albanian character.
According to Hyseni, the BIA operates neither as a private company nor as a municipal office where jobs can be promised during meetings with citizens; it is a state security institution. The agency itself, he recalled, states that working there requires specific professional skills and qualities, while recruitment is conducted through specific procedures. For this reason, he asked whether the main criterion should be meritocracy or personal ties to those in power and necessarily being of Serbian ethnicity, in an area where 95% of the population is Albanian.
Hyseni said the sensitivity of the issue was particularly heightened in the Presheva Valley, as Albanians have complained for decades about discrimination and insufficient representation in state institutions, especially in security structures, the administration and public institutions.
Under these circumstances, he said, the direct promise of employment at the BIA could be understood as a tool of political influence and a brazen signal to Albanians that, in Serbia and within this agency, there is room only for Serbs.
He described the situation in the Presheva Valley as paradoxical, with Albanians facing unemployment, poverty, a lack of investment and the continuous departure of young people. Hyseni said Albanians do not leave because they do not love Presheva, Bujanoc or Medvegjë, but because they see no economic or professional prospects. According to him, Serbia, as a discriminatory and fascist state, forces non-Serb citizens to choose between emigration and survival.
Hyseni asked where the state was when employment needed to be secured for young Albanians and what the institutional response was when a young Albanian applied for a job in the police, military, administration, judiciary, public enterprises or security institutions.
If a phone call from the president can expedite a citizen’s employment opportunity, then Albanians have the right to demand that the same state provide everyone with equal opportunities, regardless of ethnicity, he said.
He explained that Albanians are not seeking privileges, but equality; they do not want jobs to be handed to them as a political reward, but demand fair competition and meritocracy. Nor, he said, do they expect Belgrade to “save” them, but rather that the institutions of the Republic of Serbia refrain from discriminating against them.
Hyseni emphasized that the treatment of Albanians in the Presheva Valley was not only a matter of their rights, but was also important for Serbia’s own stability.
According to him, stability in the Presheva Valley cannot be based on political patronage, individual favors and direct clientelist relationships. A sustainable policy must be based on functioning institutions, proportional representation, economic development and equal opportunities for both Albanians and Serbs.
He said Vučić’s statement sent a troubling signal because it showed that the president could intervene personally to open an institutional door that should be accessible to ordinary citizens through standard procedures.
According to Hyseni, this creates the impression that the state serves only Serbs, who enjoy exceptional access to those in power, while Albanians continue to be ignored and discriminated against. He cited the non-recognition of diplomas obtained in Kosovo, the deletion of addresses and the ethnic cleansing of the Valley through administrative and police measures, stressing that the region’s Albanians should not accept this situation as normal.
Hyseni clarified that he did not oppose the employment of any Serb citizen. According to him, every young Serb who secures a job and remains in their hometown is one fewer person forced to leave. However, the same right must also be guaranteed to young Albanians. He called on the state to curb emigration and preserve the Albanian population through equal and non-discriminatory policies, rather than through ethnic selection or political patronage.
Speaking about a possible solution, Hyseni said the Presheva Valley did not need Belgrade’s political mercy, but economic development and institutional justice—two issues that, according to him, represent a fundamental distinction.
He stressed that a job could not serve as a reward for political loyalty, while employment in a security institution should not be offered as a personal favor. Such a position, he said, should be earned through knowledge, professionalism, integrity and a transparent process.
If Serbia aims to prove that it is a democratic and European state, the main test, according to Hyseni, is not found in statements made in Belgrade, but in the reality in Presheva, Bujanoc and Medvegjë. He reiterated that the Albanians of the Valley were not seeking privileged treatment, but an end to discrimination, describing this as a civic, democratic and European demand.
In conclusion, Hyseni also linked the issue to national dignity. As an Albanian from the Presheva Valley, he said no young Albanian should be forced to emigrate simply because the state had failed to provide equal conditions for them to work and live in their hometown.
He asked why, if a citizen could be found a job at the BIA within 48 hours, jobs and employment opportunities could not be created for thousands of young Albanians through an equal, transparent and merit-based system. According to him, this is precisely where a serious discussion about the position of Albanians in the Presheva Valley should begin.
Hyseni concluded by saying that Aleksandar Vučić’s unexpected visit was no coincidence, coming immediately after Albanian political leaders returned from Albania, where the opening of an Albanian Consulate in Bujanoc had been discussed as a reciprocal measure following the opening of the Serbian Consulate in Shkodra.
According to him, this consulate could do more harm than good, considering that more than 130,000 Albanians live in the Valley, while Shkodra and the surrounding area officially have 160 Serb and Montenegrin residents. For this reason, Hyseni also viewed Vučić’s visit as an insincere and ugly diplomatic message, he concluded for “Bota sot.”
