[image: International Herald Tribune] <http://www.iht.com/> Political disputes steer Serbia to new elections
The Associated Press Tuesday, May 8, 2007 <http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/354d/3/0/%2a/k%3B100839546%3B0-0%3B0%3B7973244%3B4252-336/280%3B20911277/20929170/1%3B%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://adv0022.247realmedia.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/gaggimedia.IHT.ROS/gaggimedia/GlobeMail-April07-IHT-Male-ROS-300/1?> <http://adv0022.247realmedia.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/gaggimedia.IHT.ROS/849008520/UNKNOWN/gaggimedia/GlobeMail-April07-IHT-Male-ROS-300/Wine-Wed-9-300x250.html/63303462333039363436343165386430> <http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/europe.iht.com;cat=index;sz=336x280;ord=123456789?> *BELGRADE, Serbia:* Serbia's pro-Western president on Wednesday warned that the election of a hardline nationalist to a highly influential position jeopardized the country's European Union goals, while pro-democracy parties seemed unable to agree on a new government. Lawmakers on Tuesday elected Tomislav Nikolic — member of the right-wing Serbian Radical Party and admirer of late President Slobodan Milosevic — to the post of parliament speaker, the No. 2 position in the country after the president. The Belgrade Stock Exchange Wednesday plunged by 5 percent, the national currency, the dinar, began to slide and both the EU and the U.S. voiced concern over where the Balkan state was heading. Germany, which holds EU presidency, on Wednesday urged pro-European parties to form a reformist government. Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed that appeal, and her concern over the election of Nikolic, in a telephone conversation Wednesday with the outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm. Nearly four months after Jan. 21 elections and fruitless talks among pro-democracy parties to form a new Cabinet, Kostunica and his conservative Democratic Party of Serbia endorsed Nikolic's election, following an apparent collapse of Cabinet talks with pro-Western Democrats led by President Boris Tadic. Tadic insists the political deadlock must be resolved, and he set a Friday deadline for the conservative-ultranationalist alliance to propose a premier or face new elections. "The choice of the Serbian Radical Party member as the president of the Parliament is very damaging for the interests of the country and jeopardizes a possibility of creating an European quality of life for Serbian citizens," Tadic said in a statement. Liberal Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic urged Tadic to dissolve the parliament and call early elections. Jovanovic said he would organize street protests in case Tadic appoints Kostunica or Nikolic as premier designate. "Tadic must save Serbia from the policies that had destroyed it in the past," Jovanovic said. Nikolic used his first day as the speaker to declare that Serbia should stop striving for closer ties with the West and turn to Russia which, in his view, "will find a way to bring together nations that will stand up against the hegemony of America and of the European Union." The parliament on Wednesday elected three deputies to Nikolic, all from right-wing parties, as pro-Western groups boycotted the election. In Washington, the State Department said Nikolic's language was reminiscent of "the bad old days of hate speech" of Milosevic's regime, which ended in 2000 when then united democratic groups came to power in Belgrade. But anti-Western sentiment have surged in Serbia with a U.N. plan that would give independence to Kosovo, the southern province of Serbia where ethnic Albanians form a majority. The plan is backed by Washington and opposed by Moscow. The deadline Tadic has set for the naming of a prime minister — Friday — is also the day on which Serbia is to assume the rotating chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights organization. Questions have been asked about Belgrade's suitability for the role. "We are not going to interfere in a domestic political situation, but ... the person elected as speaker of the parliament comes from a party run by an indicted war criminal," Matjaz Gruden, a Council spokesman said, referring to the Radicals' leader, Vojislav Seselj, who awaits trial at the U.N. war crimes court in the Netherlands. Seselj was a top ally of Milosevic in the wars during the 1990s as Yugoslavia broke apart. Human Rights Watch urged the Council of Europe to pressure Serbia to hand over another war crimes suspect, Gen. Ratko Mladic, long sought for atrocities and genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. "For the Council of Europe to retain credibility as a human rights champion, it can't abandon the victims of genocide in Bosnia," said Richard Dicker, an HRW director. ------------------------------ Notes: ------------------------------ ------------------------------ [image: International Herald Tribune] <http://www.iht.com/> Copyright (c) 2007 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com
