BELGRADE, 21 February 2004 — Three Serbian parties that were once a part of the opposition to the strongman President Slobodan Milosevic’s regime yesterday took another step toward an alliance with the former foes, in spite of warnings from the West.
After weeks of wrangling, Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), the G17 Plus and a coalition led by Vuk Draskovic’s Serbian Renewal movement (DSS) sealed an agreement to run a minority government operating on support from Milosevic’s Socialists (SPS).
It took political leaders nearly two months, since the early election in late December, to reach a deal. The extremist Serbian Radical Party claimed the most seats in the poll, but was shunned by the other five parties in the Parliament as potential partners.
After the election, the three parties of the so-called democratic bloc have previously shut out the fourth, caretaker Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic’s Democratic Party (DS), claiming that it was too corrupt for a full-fledged coalition. DS, embroiled in an internal power struggle since it lost its reformist leader and Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in an assassination 11 months ago, refused to back a minority government.
But SPS, facing continuous declining popularity since Milosevic’s fall in October 2000, was eager to return to power under any circumstances and avoid another election — in which it would probably collect enough votes to make it to the legislature.
“Based on the ... program and aims listed in the (coalition) agreement, SPS will give its support, in principle, to the minority government,” a top party official, Ivica Dacic, said yesterday. Kostunica, due to be designated as the next premier, made the decision to side with SPS rather than DS, despite an increasingly open hostility from the European Union and United States.
The EU. foreign policy supremo, Javier Solana, warned that a Serbian government depending on Milosevic’s party would face problems in political and economic relations with the international community.
“We are concerned and we will carefully monitor developments,” he said Monday in Brussels, repeating that EU would prefer authorities that would remain on the “same course” as the outgoing government.
“That means continuing the process of reform and moving closer to the European Union,” Solana said. The US ambassador to Belgrade, William Montgomery, conceded that Washington would not “automatically suspend” aid presuming a Cabinet backed by Socialists takes over, but voiced concern whether it would be capable of meeting requirements for the support.
“The question is what decisions will the Cabinet make and those decisions — or the lack of them — will determine the level of future aid?” he told radio B92.
The future Cabinet will not only have to restart the stalled reforms, but also become far more cooperative toward the United Nations war crimes tribunal, where Milosevic has been on trial for more than two years. However, the three “democratic” parties and SPS have based their election campaigns on economic populism and hostility toward The Hague war crimes tribunal — with SPS actually running their list of candidates under Milosevic’s name.
Montgomery said that the “first test” for the upcoming government will be on March 31, when the US Secretary of State Colin Powell is to confirm whether Belgrade has met the requirements for continued support. While the conditioned US aid will not directly be critical even for the cash-strapped Serbia, it will again serve as the key signal to other states and organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
