Tomislav Nikolic’s hunger strike is fueling political tensions in Serbia, whose government wants to move the country toward European Union membership but is increasingly unpopular because of rapidly falling living standards, rampant inflation and rising unemployment.

Nikolic’s nationalist Serbian Progressive Party party has capitalized on the discontent, becoming the country’s most popular by far in recent polls. That gives the former ally of Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic the potential power to set back the country’s efforts to shake off its recent pariah status in Europe and embrace the mainstream.

President Boris Tadic says Serbia has to get European Union candidate status before he calls the vote early next year. Nikolic’s coalition partner Velimir Ilic warned of “anarchy” on the streets if Tadic waits and Nikolic’s party deputy leader Aleksandar Vucic said he will call “all of Serbia to Belgrade” next week because “we want the elections. Popular discontent is growing day by day.” Nikolic “is playing for all or nothing,” said Rasim Ljajic, a government minister. “That could lead Serbia into new confrontations, polarization and clashes.” Nikolic appeared confident, telling The Associated Press from his hospital bed that he is convinced that after his hunger strike the government “will no longer present an influential factor on the political scene.” Doctors said that Nikolic agreed to drink following an appeal by the head of Serbia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, but Dr. Ljubomir Ilic said “he still refuses any food.” A tall, dour-faced man with brooding eyes and a quick wit, Nikolic is known as “Toma the Undertaker,” a reference to his job as a manager of a graveyard in the 1980s.

He has been one step away from gaining power many times in the past, narrowly losing two consecutive presidential elections against Tadic, and three parliamentary votes while leading his former ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party.

Analysts say that in recent years Nikolic has succeeded in attracting disenchanted Serbs by railing against corruption and social injustice, while distancing himself from the founder of the Radicals, Vojislav Seselj, who once said he would like to gouge out the eyes of rival Croats with a rusty spoon.

In the process of his political transformation, Nikolic has claimed to have shifted from staunchly anti-Western, to pro-European Union.

The self-proclaimed “Russia lover” seems to be Kremlin’s choice for Serbia’s new leader. He made several recent trips to Moscow for consultations with top Russian officials.

There is growing concern in the West and among Serbian liberals that the victory of Nikolic, who was deputy prime minister in coalition government with Milosevic in the late 1990s and backed his wars, could plunge Serbia back into a new confrontation with the West.

“The West could point at Milosevic the dictator in the 90s, and say he made Serbia a pariah,” said political analyst Dejan Anastasijevic. “But if by any chance Nikolic wins democratic elections, the West will say, the Serbs deserve to self-destruct.”