BELGRADE, Serbia — As Serbia's parliament prepared to elect Ivica Dacic as prime minister, the former wartime spokesman for Slobodan Milosevic tried to dispel concern that his government could push this country back into the nationalism of the late strongman's era.
Ivica Dacic — who had
earned the nickname “Little Sloba” in the past for his admiration of the
former Yugoslav president — pledged once again in his speech to the
lawmakers on Thursday that he would press on with Serbia’s bid to join
the European Union and promote peace and stability in the Balkans.
“There
has been enough blood in the Balkans,” Dacic said. “Serbia is offering
its hand. Let us turn to the future and not deal with the past.”
Dacic’s
coalition of parties in Parliament has the majority needed to elect him
prime minister and to approve his Cabinet. This was initially expected
to happen on Thursday night, but the vote was delayed until noon on
Friday after parliamentary discussion continued into the early morning
hours.
Not everyone was reassured by Dacic’s speech.
In
Kosovo, Serbia’s former province which declared independence in 2008
following a bloody war, Foreign Minister Enver Hoxhaj described Dacic’s
ruling coalition as “antidemocratic and anti-European” and “rooted in
the past.”
“Still, it is the choice of the Serbian people,” Hoxhaj
said. “They are the ones who should worry if Serbia returns to its dark
past or looks toward a European future.”
Nenad Canak, an
opposition lawmaker in the Serbian parliament, said: “Ours was no
ordinary past that we can simply leave behind.” Speaking to Dacic, he
said: “You are talking about it as if the Balkan wars were a petty
quarrel.”
If Dacic and his Cabinet, which also includes President
Tomislav Nikolic’s nationalist party and several smaller groups, are
sworn in on Friday, as expected, that will end nearly three months of
political uncertainty that followed an inconclusive election on May 6.
Once
elected, the new Cabinet will mark the first time Milosevic’s
nationalist allies have fully returned to power in Serbia since the
former autocrat was ousted in a popular revolt in 2000 after a decade
marked with wars, international sanctions and economic downturn.
Dacic and his coalition partners have strong ties with Russia
and have suggested in the past that they would drop Serbia’s EU bid if
it means that the country has to give up its claim on Kosovo, whose
independence Belgrade has refused to accept.
Djordje Vlajic, an
editor at Radio Belgrade, said the democratic public in Serbia fears a
return to Milosevic’s autocratic era of the 1990s, but such a scenario
is impossible and “no one would dare reignite tensions in the region.”
He said Dacic has changed “and built a pro-European image and he will
seek to stick to that.”
Vlajic warned, however, that “some
elements (of war-era tensions) could return if the new ruling coalition
does not send a clear message” that it has changed.
In his speech,
Dacic insisted that “our goal is to speed up the process of EU
integration.” He said that the new authorities are ready to
“immediately” continue the EU-brokered talks with Kosovo, which is a
condition for Serbia’s EU bid. “Serbia will not recognize Kosovo’s
independence,” Dacic said. “But we will solve the issue of Kosovo
peacefully and through dialogue.”
Besides Dacic, the new
government would include other prominent figures from the Milosevic era.
Aleksandar Vucic — who would be in charge of defense and security in
the new government — was Milosevic’s former information minister,
notorious for his extremist views during the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
Milosevic
was widely blamed for instigating the conflict in the former
Yugoslavia, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and left millions
homeless. The former Serbian and Yugoslav leader was tried for genocide
at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, where he died before the
trial ended.
Post-Milosevic authorities have since managed to
restore Serbian ties with the world and boost regional reconciliation.
The reformists have also arrested war criminals and made Serbia a
candidate for EU entry, gaining support from the United States and its
EU allies who have sought to stabilize the Balkans.
Dacic was a
loyal disciple during the war and has evoked Milosevic’s trademark
defiance and populism even after forging an alliance with pro-Western
Democrats in the previous government. However, Dacic ditched the
Democrats after reformist leader Boris Tadic lost the presidential
election to nationalist Nikolic.
Dacic then turned to Nikolic’s nationalist Progressive Party for a coalition, reportedly with support from Russia.
Among
the challenges facing the new government are widespread joblessness and
a cash-strapped budget amid deepening economic crisis. The average
salary in Serbia is around €350 ($429) per month, while poverty is
widespread.
