Milosevic's Socialists emerge as key players in Serbian coalition talks
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
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Serbian nationalists and their pro-Western rivals have been scrambling to forge alliances that would let them take power after bitterly divisive parliamentary elections on Sunday.
At stake was President Boris Tadic's drive to bring the Balkan country closer to EU membership, and the international community's demand that Serbia bring fugitive war crimes suspects to justice.
"A new and in many ways uncertain phase in the country's political life has begun," said Braca Grubacic, a leading political analyst.
Although Mr Tadic's reformist Coalition for a European Serbia got the most votes, it was forced to seek support from minority parties to gain the parliamentary majority needed to form a government.
The far-rightist Tomislav Nikolic's Radical Party, which finished second, has met the nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's conservative coalition in an attempt to steer Serbia away from the EU and towards its traditional ally Russia.
Both Mr Nikolic and Mr Tadic were courting the late Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party in hopes of piecing together at least 126 seats in the 250-seat parliament. Near-complete results released by the state electoral commission gave Mr Tadic's bloc 102 seats and the Radicals 77.
Mr Tadic was reaching out to the Liberal Party, with 14 seats, and to an ethnic Hungarian party with four. If he persuaded the Socialists to join him with their 20 seats, he would have a total of 140 seats. But Mr Nikolic was assured of the support of the 30 deputies loyal to Mr Kostunica's coalition, and if he were to get the Socialist swing seats, his alliance would total 127 seats.
Mr Tadic's Western allies rallied around the Serbian president. The EU, which signed a pre-entry aid-and-trade agreement with Serbia before the elections, called his coalition's success a "clear victory" by pro-European forces. "We look forward to working with a new government formed on this mandate," said Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said pro-European parties had won an "important moral victory".
Mr Tadic has pledged to try to capture indicted war crimes suspects including General Ratko Mladic. Mr Nikolic has said he has no intention of pursuing suspects.
The pro-Western coalition's strong showing came just three months after protesters, outraged by Kosovo's declaration of independence on 17 February, set fire to part of the US embassy in Belgrade.
