BBC website: "The presidential election in Serbia has been won by the pro-Western candidate of the Democratic Party, Boris Tadic. His rival in the run-off poll, Tomislav Nikolic of the nationalist Serbian Radical Party, has admitted defeat.
Previous three ballots were declared invalid because of a now abolished law that required a minimum turnout of 50%. According to final estimates from the Centre for Free and Fair Elections, Mr Tadic won 53.7%, with Mr Nikolic polling 45%. Turnout was about 49%. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3845043.stm With Romania and Bulgaria lining up to join the EU, I think there is a historical materialist inevitability about this, not withstanding the imperialist tricks, pressures, and war that were of course employed. It has to do with the relatively weak role now possible for national capital compared to finance capital, which transcends the limits of the old national states these days, and the difficulties of finding a genuine socialist alternative for a relatively small state. Not without many crimes and misdemeanours, the broad picture is that the Yugoslav state was pulled apart and broke up to fall into the more powerful gravitational field of the European Union, around which the fragments orbit in relative order, awaiting their turn to be swallowed up with resignation and without enthusiasm. The most important thing is the try to build the international solidarity of working people to fight another day. Chris Burford
