Milosevic protégé to be new Serbia prime minister

Reuters ^ | Thu Jun 28, 2012 1:50pm EDT | Aleksandar Vasovic

[Olog-hai]

The wartime spokesman of late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic was asked on Thursday to form a coalition government with a nationalist party, raising concerns among diplomats and investors about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership.

Ivica Dacic, head of the Socialist party once led by Milosevic, said after being given the mandate to govern: "There will be no return to the 1990s," the decade when the former Yugoslavia was ripped apart by war.

"As prime minister, I will never make a decision that will be an injustice to Serbia and its citizens," Dacic said after meeting President Tomislav Nikolic, head of the nationalist SNS party with which he will form a coalition.

"The new government's task is to create a better life for our citizens ... and it must stay on a stable European course," Nikolic, a former ultra-nationalist who surprisingly beat liberal Boris Tadic in last month's presidential run-off vote, told reporters.

Diplomats say the EU, which made Serbia an official candidate for membership in March, had hoped Tadic would become prime minister in a coalition with the Socialists, marginalizing Nikolic and keeping the country on a pro-reform path.

But the Socialists rejected proposals to revive a coalition with Tadic's Democratic party after seven weeks of talks and instead sided with Nikolic.

With Nikolic and Dacic in the driving seat, the Democrats lost all levers of power for the first time since they ousted Milosevic in October 2000.

In the 1990s, Dacic was a spokesman for Milosevic, who was handed over to the Hague war crimes tribunal on this day in 2001 and later died in detention while on trial for fomenting wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Under Dacic, the Socialists shed most of Milosevic's legacy, but many diplomats see them as opportunists rather than reformers. …

[Olog-hai]

Looks like they may start shifting towards being more aligned with Russia again.

[formosa]

I can’t say that I blame them. All the west has done is betray them in the name of jihad everywhere. Our involvement there was the worst thing we’ve ever done. Russia at least will stick by them more than we have. I can only imagine that in their eyes we are the greater source of pain at the moment.

[PT57A]

"Nikolic, a former ultra-nationalist who surprisingly beat liberal Boris Tadic in last month's presidential run-off vote, told reporters. "

Surprising, really? Apparently reuters thought the kool-aid tasted good.

[PT57A]

“Russia at least will stick by them more than we have.”

Only to serve Russian interests.

With that said, Yeltsin was a weak drunk who was “managing” a destroyed post Soviet economy and a devastated Ruble and was in really no position to provide any assistance to Serbia in 1999. Putin, OTH, won’t fold like Yeltsin did, if another confrontation were to arise over Kosovo it will turn out more like the Georgia incident.