The president of Kosovo confirmed that France and Germany have suggested holding new elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo as a means of defusing tensions over the forced installation of ethnic-Albanian mayors.
Vjosa Osmani said she told French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Pristina is "ready to consider that possibility."
Osmani also said she told the European leaders that legal procedures make it possible to hold elections.
"I informed them that our legislation allows this possibility and we are ready to consider it based on the law on elections of Kosovo," Osmani said.
Macron, speaking on June 1 at a summit of European leaders in Moldova, said he and Scholz also asked for Kosovo's election rules to be clarified.
Macron's comments came as diplomats pushed for an end to the standoff that erupted in violent clashes earlier this week involving NATO peacekeepers.
Kosovar Prime Minister Albert Kurti showed no signs of backing down in a dispute over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors in areas of North Kosovo dominated by ethnic Serbs as diplomats pushed for an end to a standoff that erupted in violent clashes involving NATO peacekeepers several days earlier.
Speaking to Kosovar media on June 1, Kurti said the mayors, elected in April in balloting boycotted by ethnic Serbs, should "go and work in their offices."
"We need to have normality.... What is the meaning of having public buildings for state officials if they are not used?" he added.
Ethnic Serb protesters gathered for a fourth day in three northern Kosovo towns, but in smaller numbers than in the previous days after violent clashes earlier in the week over the forced installation of the mayors. An apparent social-media organized counterprotest by Albanian citizens was also reported in the divided city of Mitrovica, in ethnic-Serb- dominated northern Kosovo.
International efforts to end the standoff saw key diplomats, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urge "immediate de-escalation"by both Serbia and Kosovo.
The crisis started when ethnic Albanian mayors were installed with the help of Kosovar police in three towns with an overwhelming ethnic Serbian majority -- Zvecan, Leposaviq, and Zubin Potok -- following by-elections in April with a turnout of under 3.5 percent amid a Serb boycott.
Violence that broke out on May 29 between ethnic Serbs trying to prevent the mayors having access to municipal offices and Kosovar police continued after the intervention of KFOR international troops, who suffered dozens of injuries.
A tense calm has since followed the clashes as KFOR installed razor-wire barricades around municipal buildings to keep protesters at bay.
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Kosovo Serbs Continue Protests As NATO Bolsters Peacekeeping Force
One ethnic Albanian mayor, Lulzim Hetemi, has been in his office in Leposavic since early on May 29 with NATO peacekeepers keeping him separated from protesters. The ethnic Albanian mayors for Zvecan and Zubin Potok have been working remotely from their home villages.
Despite appeals by the United States and the EU to return to dialogue, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti is continuing to insist that the ethnic Albanian mayors have the legal right to take over municipal buildings in the towns where they were elected even as their legitimacy was being contested by the Serbs.
The United States has proposed allowing the mayors to work from locations other than the municipal buildings, but Kurti told RFE/RL on May 31 that such an order would be regarded as proof of a parallel structure being created within Kosovo.
During the summit in Moldova, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Macron, and Scholz held an "informal meeting" with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani, a diplomatic source told Reuters.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on June 1 that the alliance, which announced it was supplementing its Kosovo contingent with 700 more troops, is ready to send even more forces to calm the situation. Stoltenberg was speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo.
He added that the first 700 troops were already on their way to Kosovo.
The Belgrade-backed Serbian List (Srpska Lista) said the protests will stop only when their demands for the removal of Kosovar Albanian mayors and the withdrawal of special police units from the north are met.