BELGRADE, 13 October 2003 — Serbia’s weakened coalition government is looking increasingly unstable.
A few days before a planned no-confidence debate, leaders of the ruling coalition Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) seemed uncertain not only about the outcome of the vote but whether it would take place at all tomorrow.
Momcilo Trajkovic, a DOS leader from Kosovo, already petitioned for a delay, as the first talks between Belgrade, Kosovo Albanians and the UN administration governing the province were scheduled to begin on the same day in Vienna.
When the current Parliament convened for the first time to appoint Zoran Djindjic as prime minister in January 2001, the DOS — a broad alliance which brought down Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic three months earlier — had 176 out of the 250 seats.
This year, the government was hanging on to a slim majority, which at times dipped below 130, and even failed to pass a crucial law in the first attempt in February.
The cracks started to show in 2001 but over the past 18 months the coalition has been crumbling. Tragically, Djindjic, who was instrumental in holding together the coalition and its slim majority, was assassinated in March.
Today, it is very difficult to say how many votes Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic can count on, or which members of the opposition would genuinely be willing to cast a vote for early parliamentary polls.
Former Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, the leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), which was once part of the DOS alliance, tabled one of the no-confidence motions and has continued pressing for elections ahead of their regular date in late 2004.
“The debate on Oct. 14 should bring absolute clarity to Serbian political relations,” Kostunica said in an interview with the Beta news agency on Thursday.
Extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), which tabled the second no-confidence motion, is also certain to vote against Zivkovic’s Cabinet.
Like DSS, SRS appears confident that it would improve its position if elections were called. “We want to take the power from DOS,” SRS leader Tomislav Nikolic, told a press conference this week.
Nikolic took over leadership of SRS when Vojislav Seselj turned himself in to stand trial at the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
Nikolic is also the SRS candidate for presidential elections, scheduled for Nov. 16.
The presidential election is another reason to postpone the no-confidence debate, say some officials, who believe the debate is inappropriate during the presidential campaign, especially considering the usual misuse of the Parliament for party promotion.
