TOUGH TALKS LOOM AFTER SERB POLLS

BBC
KarabakhOpen
12-05-2008 15:37:13

Results from Serbia’s elections point to a triumph for President
Boris Tadic’s pro-European Union bloc.

Mr Tadic claimed victory, with his bloc set to win nearly 40% of the
vote, but he may need the support of at least one nationalist party
for a majority.

The European Union has welcomed what it called a clear victory for
pro-European forces in the parliamentary elections.

The nationalist Radical Party, though, insists that it could still
head a coalition forming the next government.

Ultra-nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic said he would have talks
with parties which were close ideologically.

Formation of the new government could take up to three months,
analysts warn.

Kosovo

In a victory speech, President Tadic said the Serbian people had in
effect given their approval to the country’s future membership of
the EU, with whom a long-delayed agreement was signed just before
the election.

"The citizens of Serbia have undoubtedly confirmed a clear European
path", he said, adding: "It is necessary to form a government as soon
as possible".

But he also vowed that a new government led by his Democratic Party
would not recognise Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo as an
independent state.

Mr Tadic faces the challenge of finding stable partners for his
already complex three-party coalition without making too many political
concessions, the BBC’s Ivana Miloradovic reports.

Even with the support of Hungarian, Muslim and Albanian minority
parties and the small Liberal Democrats – the only party ready to
recognise the independence of Kosovo – his coalition falls short of
the necessary majority.

The previous government fell over the issue of how to react when most
EU countries recognised the independence of Kosovo.

Coalition

Mr Nikolic’s Radical Party won 29% of the vote according to an
independent projection. The official count has yet to be completed.

The Radicals’ leader said he planned to meet both the Democratic
Party of Serbia of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and
the Socialists – the party of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan
Milosevic.

Theoretically, the three parties could form a coalition with a
wafer-thin majority in parliament.

Either the three parties would form a coalition, Mr Nikolic said,
or Serbia would "not have a government at all and have to go to
new elections".

Mr Kostunica said after the election that he was open to talks with
the Radicals.

"It’s too early to say anything specific, but I hope that we will
be one of the main players in the formation of the new government,"
he added.

Parties have a legal deadline of three months to reach agreement.

International isolation

Ironically, the key player that could make or break any future
coalition seems to be the Socialists.

The party responsible for the country’s international isolation under
Milosevic has reinvented itself as an advocate of social justice and
attracts many young, often poor or unemployed voters.

Mr Kostunica’s coalition would be a less desirable partner for the
pro-EU bloc and the political cost of attracting it back into a new
government could prove to be too high.

A statement from the EU’s Slovenian presidency welcomed a "clear
victory" for pro-European forces, and said it hoped they would quickly
form a government

Tadic supporters have been celebrating in Belgrade with fireworks.

Cars decked with party and EU symbols blew their horns as they circled
the city centre.

Serbs in Kosovo also voted, both in the general election and in
council elections, in defiance of the ethnic Albanian government and
international authorities.

Some 300 polling stations opened in areas with a sizeable Serb
population and the vote passed off peacefully.

However, even before the polls closed, the United Nations mission
issued a statement, condemning the council elections as illegal and
saying the results would not be recognised.