http://xs4.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=09&dd=06&nav_id=53268
Tomislav Nikolić resigns 6 September 2008 | 08:57 -> *17:58* | Source: Beta, Blic, Politika, Tanjug, Večernje novosti *BELGRADE -- Tomislav Nikolić has resigned as Serb Radical Party (SRS) deputy leader. *The SRS announced that Nikolić had tendered his resignation during the party's presidency meeting last night. Earlier today, SRS Vice-President Dragan Todorović confirmed that the SRS would not be voting for the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) after all, confirming reports in the Belgrade press of a deep rift within the party. Nikolić told Tanjug today that he decided to resign after receiving an order late on Thursday that the Radicals were not to vote for the SAA. The former SRS deputy leader said that it had initially been agreed by the party bodies that SRS MPs would vote for the SAA if the government adopted the Radicals' amendment on the draft ratification bill. “I reiterated that position in parliament and I succeeded in getting the government to accept the SRS's amendment,” he explained. According to Nikolić, on Thursday, during the parliamentary session, it was promised that the SRS MPs would vote for the SAA. “In the evening, however, I received an order telling them not to vote for the agreement, which was a complete shift in policy,” Nikolić told Tanjug. “I resigned, stating that I could put up with anything, but not that,” said the former Radical deputy leader. "Šeselj overturned SAA decision" According to today's edition of Većernje Novosti, the u-turn came after pressure from Serb Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Šešelj in The Hague on his party colleagues, after which the faction loyal to Šešelj rejected deputy leader Tomislav Nikolić’s plan to support the agreement in parliament at the SRS presidential collegium. According to the daily, on Thursday, Šešelj, stunned by the actions of his party colleagues, called the leadership and ordered them not to enter any kind of pact with the government, underlining that voting for the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) would be tantamount to betraying Kosovo. Todorović told Novosti at around 14:00 CET yesterday that SRS MPs /would /support the SAA: “We’ll vote for ratification of the SAA, and talk of divisions are a complete fallacy.” “We’ve decided on this step out of national and state interests, there’s no kind of u-turn towards the Democratic Party (DS),” he insisted. However, just two hours later, Todorović stated curtly: “We won’t be voting for the SAA.” DS whip Nada Kolundžija did not wish to comment on the SRS’s decision to withdraw support from the SAA after the government had adopted its amendment because, as she put it, there was no official information that SRS officials had changed their minds. Todorović also confirmed to Politika that the Radicals would not be voting for SAA ratification, adding that the media had misinterpreted Nikolić’s statement. SRS leader in Vojvodina Milorad Mirčić called the rumors that the party would be voting in favor of the SAA “rubbish”. “Nikolić never said that we’d be voting for the SAA. He just said that we would support the amendment that reiterates that Kosovo is a part of Serbia. Nikolić never talked about conditioning support for the SAA on the adoption of this amendment,” Mirčić told Politika.
