Belgrade - Serb nationalist parties Tuesday denounced pro-
European politicians as traitors after they accepted a European Union
deal to draw closer to the EU, less than two weeks before elections
in the Balkan country.
Vicious rhetoric focused on President Boris Tadic, who travelled
to Luxembourg for the signing of the Stabilization and Association
Agreement (SAA), a pre-membership accord with the EU.
Caretaker Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's party said it would
seek to revoke Serbia's signature in the new parliament being elected
May 11.
'Serbia will never accept the Stabilization and Association
Agreement with the European Union, and the new government and the new
parliament will annul it', Kostunica's Serbian Democratic Party (DSS)
said.
'Tadic is putting a Judas stamp on (EU foreign policy chief
Javier) Solana's agreement', the DSS statement said.
Kostunica, who could be the kingmaker of the next government, said
earlier that by signing the SAA, Serbia would recognize Kosovo's
independence.
He also accused EU of trying to create a new state on Serbian
territory by sending its mission to Kosovo, which declared
independence from Serbia in February.
The ultranationalist Radical Party, running neck-and-neck with
Tadic's pro-European party in polls, said Tadic will 'answer for
breaching Serbia's constitution and betraying Serbia'.
'The new parliament will start a procedure of replacing Tadic,'
said Dragan Todorovic, the party's deputy head.
Under Monday's deal, the EU-Serbian agreement will take effect
only once Belgrade shows full cooperation with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
EU supporters welcomed the SAA as an opportunity for a better
future, easier travelling and a stronger economy.
'The benefits of European integration will affect everyone, and
the EU's call to Serbia to sign the SAA shows that our society can
move faster toward the EU,' said a spokesman of the G17 party from
Tadic's pro-European bloc
But Tadic said he would tell EU officials that Serbia will never
recognize independent Kosovo.
Serbia's early parliamentary elections are widely seen as a choice
between EU path or return to the isolation and poverty of the 1990s.
As Serbia reels from the loss of its province Kosovo and wavers
between EU, Russia and even self-imposed isolation, a murky election
outcome would surely be followed by months of negotiations, political
trading and blackmail.
It would also cement Serbia's turn away from an EU membership bid,
which Kostunica blocked in January over Western support of Kosovo's
independence.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Foreign Minister Sven Alkalaj criticised
the EU for reaching out to Serbia before top war crimes suspects are
handed over.
Brussels has undermined 'its policy that each country progresses
toward the EU as fast as it fulfils necessary conditions,' he told
the Sarajevo daily Dnevni avaz.
He also complained that Bosnia has already met the key condition
for its own SAA - a reform of the laws governing the country's
fragmented police forces - but has to wait until May 26 for the
signing due to technical reasons.
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