Translated material
Boris, you're right!
Serbs voted for Kosovo, Europe and Russia
The results of the second round of presidential elections in Serbia left more questions than answers. They broke the scenario prepared in the European Union and the Serbian region of Kosovo in the event of the expected victory of the radical Tomislav Nikolic. Kosovo Albanians were planning to declare independence within days of the election results being announced. And the European Union was ready to immediately recognize this act under the pretext that an unpredictable radical like the late Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic had come to power in Belgrade. By re-electing Boris Tadic, a supporter of pan-European values, the Serbs drove Brussels and Pristina into a corner. Now recognition of Kosovo's independence is being postponed until at least the second half of February. According to Vremya Novostei, the Kosovo authorities may declare independence on February 18.Contrary to predictions about a sleepless night for the candidates and their election headquarters, the intrigue died without being born. The outcome of Sunday's vote became clear late that evening. The Serbian Radical Party (SRP) candidate, 55-year-old Tomislav Nikolic, immediately congratulated the current head of state, 50-year-old Boris Tadic, on his victory. Tadic thanked his opponent for the “tense and fair fight.”
Preliminary data released by the Republican Election Commission indicate that Boris Tadic more than made up for what he lost in the first round on January 20 . The current head of Serbia was supported by at least 50.57% of voters. 47.71% voted for Nikolic. Two weeks ago, in the first round, the ratio was the opposite: the SRP candidate received 39.99% of the votes, Tadic was supported by 35.39% of voters. The turnout on Sunday was 67.24% of voters. This is 6% higher than the first round.
“The unprecedentedly high voter turnout for the Serbian elections of recent years played in favor of Boris Tadic,” Elena Guskova, Doctor of Historical Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vremya Novostei, head of the center for the study of the modern Balkan crisis at the Institute of Slavic Studies. She recalled that “the democratic electorate in Serbia is traditionally more passive than the united and organized supporters of the opposition. In the country, more than 90% of older people and about 10-12% of young people usually vote. Boris Tadic needed to mobilize young voters, like him, who were oriented toward Western values. In the second round, massive voter turnout was critical.”
Tadic was also helped by the EU’s promise to sign a “transitional” agreement on free trade and visa liberalization with Serbia on February 7. Moscow also supported this candidate : on January 25, a Serbian-Russian agreement on cooperation in the oil and gas field was signed in the Russian capital. It is noteworthy that Boris Tadic personally arrived in Moscow to sign this intergovernmental document, although this was not required by the protocol.
Despite the fierce pre-election debates, the programs of Boris Tadić and Tomislav Nikolić had important common points. This is the desire to preserve the Kosovo region as part of Serbia and an interest in developing relations with Russia. But if oppositionist Nikolic, who also visited the Russian capital on the eve of the elections, was forced to express sympathy for our country in words, then President Tadic, taking advantage of his powers and the interest of Moscow, proved this in practice.
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, explained yesterday that both Tadic and Nikolic “are patriots of Serbia, but the nuance is that Tadic is for more flexible, compromise approaches and, accordingly, solutions. While Nikolic has always been a champion of radical, uncompromising and confrontational approaches.”
From European capitals, however, statements were made yesterday that Boris Tadic's victory is a triumph of Serbia's European and even Euro-Atlantic orientation. “The people of Serbia reaffirmed their support for the country’s democratic and European course,” said Slovenia, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union.
“Most Western observers assessed the presidential elections as if the Serbs cast their votes in favor of integration into Europe. In fact, we are talking about something else. The elections showed that the Serbs are afraid of returning to the isolation of the country that they experienced during the ten years of Milosevic’s rule,” Pavel Kandel, an expert on the Balkans at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, emphasized in an interview with Vremya Novostey. According to him, “the Serbs also voted to preserve the territorial integrity of the country.” After all, the victory of the radical Nikolic would give the West a reason to freeze relations with Belgrade again. In this case, Western politicians and diplomats would be unlikely to restrain the Albanian separatists of Kosovo.
The success of Boris Tadic has given the Albanian authorities in Kosovo pause. Pristina was ready to declare independence within the next few days after the elections. This was announced on the eve of the second round by the Prime Minister of the regional government, Hashim Thaci. Now the pause may drag on.
Yesterday, the speaker of the Kosovo parliament, Jakup Krasniqi, stated vaguely that the regional authorities “will declare independence in February,” but not right now. Albanian sources in Pristina, who wished to remain anonymous, specified to Vremya Novostey a possible new scenario for the Kosovo authorities: “The bet will be placed on presenting the European Union with a fait accompli. The milestone will be the meeting of the Council of the European Union at the level of foreign ministers on February 18.” According to Vremya Novostey’s Albanian interlocutors, “there is a plan in Kosovo to adopt a declaration of independence for the region a few hours before this meeting in order to force the ministers to come to terms with this reality.”