Translated material
Before new elections
Serbian President Boris Tadic, at the proposal of the government of the republic, dissolved the assembly (parliament) and scheduled early parliamentary elections for May 11, which will be held simultaneously with the elections to regional and local authorities scheduled in December 2007. In connection with the dissolution of the Assembly, the mandate of the government formed by it, which did not last even a year, also ends.
The holding of early parliamentary elections was caused by deepening contradictions in the ruling coalition of Serbia. These contradictions have existed for a long time, but their new aggravation began during the presidential elections in early February, when the Democratic Party of Serbia, led by the country's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, did not express support for the leader of the Democratic Party Boris Tadic due to disagreements in assessing the activities of the European Union on Kosovo problem.
These disagreements, despite the general desire to keep Kosovo within Serbia and to continue Serbia’s rapprochement with the European Union, not only persisted, but also began to grow after the EU decided to send an administrative and police mission to Kosovo, without the approval of the Council. UN security, nor the consent of Serbia, while leading EU countries expressed diplomatic support for the unilaterally declared independence of Kosovo through its recognition. The European Commission, in its conclusions on the Western Balkans, noted the “clear European perspective of Kosovo” and the commission’s readiness to help Kosovo through the EU mission, while remaining silent about Serbia’s annulment of the decision to declare Kosovo’s independence, in connection with which Kostunica said that these conclusions are completely unacceptable and mean continuation of gross violation of international law.
A brief overview of the events in the political life of Serbia over the past ten days allows us to better understand how this crisis reached its climax. On March 3, the Serbian Radical Party submitted a proposal to the Assembly to adopt a resolution on protecting the territorial integrity of Serbia in relations with international organizations, especially with the European Union. The draft resolution strongly condemned the EU's decision to send an administrative-judicial mission to Kosovo in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which guarantees the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia, and called for the reversal of this decision, and called on states that recognized Kosovo to revoke these recognitions . The draft stipulated that Serbia would continue negotiations on accession to the EU, provided that the EU clearly confirmed the integrity of the state territory of Serbia, that is, that Serbia would be ready to join the EU only together with the autonomous province of Kosovo. This text of the resolution was agreed upon with the parliamentary groups of the Democratic Party of Serbia, the New Serbia Party and the Socialists, who considered that it was fully consistent with the state policy previously approved by the Assembly. The Democratic Party, the G-17 Plus party, the Liberal Democrats and the Union of Hungarians of Vojvodina spoke out against it. As a result, the ruling coalition - the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Serbia, the New Serbia and G-17 Plus parties - was split, and the creation of a new parliamentary majority as opposed to the existing majority in the government was outlined.
The next day, the Chairman of the Serbian Government, Vojislav Kostunica, called on all parliamentary parties to confirm in the Serbian Assembly the unity of the political position that Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia. “Instead of dividing the country regarding the European Union, what is needed is a united position of Serbia, that we want to continue the process of European integration as a whole country, ... that Serbia wants to join the European Union and that Serbia wants to join the European Union with its province of Kosovo and Metohija,” Kostunica said. However, according to Serbian President Boris Tadic, the draft Assembly resolution prepared by the radicals was not intended to protect the territorial integrity of Serbia, but to terminate negotiations on accession to the EU, which would be contrary to the interests of Serbia. He expressed his readiness to immediately sign an agreement on the stabilization and association of Serbia with the EU as soon as Serbia was invited to do so, and called for the draft resolution to be withdrawn, but the radicals refused to do this.
On March 5, the draft resolution of the Serbian Radical Party was included in the agenda of the meeting of the Serbian Assembly, but its discussion did not take place, since the chairman of the assembly, Oliver Dulic, demanded that the country's government first express its opinion on this document.
On March 6, the Serbian government, by a majority vote of ministers, rejected the draft Assembly resolution proposed by the radicals. Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said then that the government was in a deep crisis, since it no longer had a common policy on the issue of European integration and on the Kosovo problem, and Prime Minister V. Kostunica said that he no longer believed that his coalition partners – the Democratic Party and the G-17 Plus party – are sincerely fighting to preserve Kosovo within Serbia.
Thus, a situation arose that indicated a lack of unity on issues that were most important for Serbia in parliament and in the government. The alternative became real: either the resignation of the government or new parliamentary elections, which many parties considered a more expedient way out of the political crisis.
The draft Assembly resolution prepared by the radicals received the support of Kosovo Serb associations, which negatively assessed the position of the Serbian President. The position of the majority in the government, according to the chairman of the Commonwealth of Serbian Communities and Villages of Kosovo Marko Jaksic, “opens the way to the creation of another Albanian state in the Balkans.” There was concern that the parties' pre-election activities could overshadow the fight for Kosovo.
And then events began to develop very quickly. Having received the government's opinion, the chairman of the Serbian Assembly, Oliver Dulic, scheduled for March 13 the continuation of the consideration of the draft resolution of the radicals, which could have been adopted by a majority of 144 votes out of 250. However, on March 8, V. Kostunica announced that he intended to raise the issue of dissolving the Assembly with the government and holding early parliamentary elections, describing the situation as if “all parties in Serbia have a common position on the EU - everyone wants to join the EU, but there are also differences - with or without Kosovo.” By giving its members the opportunity to independently recognize Kosovo's independence, he said, the EU was giving the green light to violating the UN Charter and UN Security Council Resolution 1244. According to V. Kostunica, initialed December 6, 2207. the agreement on the stabilization and association of Serbia with the EU cannot now be signed, since all EU members must ratify it, and those who recognized the independence of Kosovo will not be able to do this, since “the agreement states that Serbia is an integral state and Kosovo is located in its composition."
On March 10, the Serbian government sent a proposal to the country's president to dissolve the assembly and schedule early parliamentary elections for May 11, which was accepted by President Boris Tadic on March 13.
So, a serious struggle between opposing forces lies ahead, the outcome of which is very difficult to predict, since the capabilities of many of its participants are significant. The prospects for creating pre-election and even post-election coalitions, the prospects for forming a majority in parliament and the government of the republic are already being discussed. The discussions are about what should be a priority: the fight to keep Kosovo within Serbia and join the EU only together with it, or join the EU and continue the fight for Kosovo, relying on stronger relations with the European Union. According to the Minister of Defense of Serbia, Deputy Chairman of the Democratic Party Dragan Sutanovac, the people will have to choose between the European perspective of Serbia and Serbia in isolation. But one cannot fail to take into account that although the majority of Serbian residents are in favor of joining the EU. however, many believe that this should not be accompanied by any conditions, much less losses for Serbia.
The West is showing serious interest in the situation in Serbia, whose media have already dubbed the opposing forces “pro-European” and “nationalist”. There are theses about the transformation of the Democratic Party of Serbia into pursuing an anti-European policy, seeking to isolate Serbia and alienate it from the European Union. And this, according to critics of V. Kostunica, is fraught with the loss of some benefits and privileges in the EU market, which accounts for more than half of Serbian exports, and a deterioration in the overall economic situation in the country. Quite noticeable are the statements of the ambassadors of the United States and Great Britain in Belgrade, whose categorical statements are regarded by some observers as interference in the internal affairs of their host country.
In Serbia today there is a serious political crisis, which will not be easy to overcome. This will also require considerable time, since after the election of the Assembly, a majority must still be formed, followed by a government. It took more than three months to form the current government, and given the current alignment of political forces, this may prove even more difficult. In this very difficult period for Serbia, it needs, first of all, the cohesion of society, which will be the key to a successful solution to the problems facing the country.