European Union demands speedy formation of unity coalition in Serbia

With the final official tally to be released today, the nationalist Radical Party (SRS) of Tomislav Nikolic received 28 percent of the vote, and 81 seats in the 250-member Parliament. The Democratic Party (DS), led by President Boris Tadic, won 23 percent, with 65 seats, and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Serbian Democratic Party (DSS) took 17 percent and 46 seats.

Amongst the smaller parties, the G17 Plus Party had 6.8 percent, the Socialist Party (SPS) of former President Slobodan Milosevic had 5.6 percent, and a coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party took 5.3 percent. A further four small parties will also receive several seats each.

A new government must be formed within 90 days of the first parliamentary session on February 25, and the EU has made clear its desire to sideline the SRS, which was in coalition with Milosevic’s SPS during the 1990s in the period leading up to the West’s dismemberment of Yugoslavia.

The official leader of the SRS is Vojislav Seselj, who is currently awaiting trial for war crimes at the United Nations tribunal in The Hague. Central to the party’s election campaign was its efforts to whip up nationalist fervor over the status of Kosovo, which has been under United Nations control since 1999.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/serb-j25.shtml