BELGRADE, 16 June 2004 — After so many recent elections billed as “crucial” for the future of Serbia, the sense of urgency has worn thin amid polling apathy.
Serbia on Sunday held another presidential election and is now preparing for the decisive runoff, on June 27, with its options spelled out more bluntly than ever — Europe or isolation.
“The second round of the presidential election is of crucial importance,” a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy supremo Javier Solana said Monday, referring to the face-off between extreme nationalist Tomislav Nikolic and the pro-Western leader Boris Tadic.
Spokeswoman Christina Galyak described the choice as “basically the same as in October 2000”, when then President Slobodan Milosevic was toppled — bidding farewell to isolation of the past, and backing a European future for their country.
Following an aggressively pro-European campaign, Tadic fared better than expected in Sunday’s poll, collecting around 27.5 percent of the votes, but still trailed Nikolic, with 30.5 percent.
“There really is no choice — it’s either vote for the future or vote for the past,” he has been telling the electorate. A hard-liner and a prominent member of Milosevic’s regime, Nikolic tried hard to present himself as a choice acceptable to the West while harping on patriotism and economic promises. He was enraged with Galyak’s comments.
“I don’t know what she meant, but I’m convinced that EU ministers don’t see the destruction of Serbian institutions as a vote for European future,” he told a press conference.
The voters severely punished Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, whose apparent problem with leading and making tough decisions sidelined his candidate, Dragan Marsicanin, who came in fourth with a miserable 13.3 percent of the vote.
Though Nikolic and Tadic are running for an office with largely ceremonial powers, the poll is seen as an indicator of the direction Serbs want to take.
The first round showed, however, that voters are either unsure, or mistrustful — torn between memories of queues for bread before 2000 and shattered hopes since. Just 47 percent turned out to vote.
“I’m sick of all of them, they are all the same” and “I don’t know whom to vote for” were among the most common response of no-shows, with most apparently inclined toward Tadic, in line with estimates that Nikolic’s electorate is far more disciplined.
A good turnout would play into the hands of Tadic — but Kostunica, propelled to prominence by a broad anti-Milosevic bloc four years ago, has yet to advise his voters whom to back. So far, he was more hostile toward Djindjic’s legacy than to Milosevic’s and Seselj’s.
But junior partners in his minority government — which is backed by Milosevic’s party — have no doubts.
Hours after Marsicanin’s debacle was announced, the four smaller parties firmly said that they wanted to see Tadic as president, not Nikolic.
A possible split in the coalition over Tadic further fuelled speculation over another early parliamentary election as early as September, just 10 months after the previous one.
Another talked-of option is an alliance of Kostunica and Nikolic, both ahead of the June 27 runoff and in the Parliament, where their parties are the two largest groups.
Visibly nervous after a marathon late night meeting with coalition partners on Monday, and an earlier telephone conversation with Nikolic, Kostunica has yet to announce any decision on this.
