Serbian Voters Spurn Nationalists

http://www.time.com ^

[NoLibZone]

The West was poised for bad news from the May 11 parliamentary vote in Serbia, where often shrill nationalist tones dominated the final days of the campaign. Instead it got good news: the pro-European Democratic Party emerged victorious, defeating the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party and their allies. The Democrats, led by President Boris Tadic, won some 37% of the vote, or 103 out of 250 seats, which should enable Tadic to dominate Serbia's policies for the next several years. The Radicals came a distant second, with 77 seats, which works out at 29.1% while the Democratic Party of Serbia, led by outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, won just 30 seats or 11% of the vote. Over the past year, the formerly moderate Kostunica evolved into a staunch nationalist, and he had hoped to form a government with the Radicals.

[old-and-old]

so Kostunica should get them over the required 50%. IIRC all deals with EU are contingent on Serbia letting Kosovo go, and giving up Mladic and Karadzic.

It will be interesting to see how it ends, especially since Tadic didn’t win 50%+1. People are hurting with 15% a month inflation, no visas and 30% unemployment but on the other hand there is a large constituency that opposes what EU wants.