Serbia paves way for massive cabinet

Europe News

Jul 4, 2008, 14:47 GMT

Belgrade - Serbia paved the way for a new government on Friday after pro European Democratic party (DS) led by president Boris Tadic, and late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists signed a coalition agreement. 'The agreement states principles and goals of the new Serbian government, and those are preservation of territorial integrity, European integration, economic growth and social justice,' Socialist leader Ivica Dacic told journalists after the signing. Dacic added that his party would head the ministries of internal affairs, energy, infrastructure and education in a cabinet headed by economist Mirko Cvetkovic. Parliament was due to pass the law on the government later in the day or during the weekend. The size of Cvetkovic's government, the largest in the region with 24 ministries and three deputy premiers, reflects the fierce haggling which produced the ruling coalition and its slim majority since the May 11 snap polls. Cvetkovic, 58, is an economic expert little known to the broad public until his promotion to finance minister in Vojislav Kostunica's outgoing cabinet in May 2007. The pro-European bloc behind Tadic's DS, plus late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialists and four representatives of the Hungarian minority have combined for 126 seats, the minimum majority in the assembly of 250. The coalition may have the support of the Liberal Democratic Party, with 13 votes, when it tables laws which would accelerate Serbia's stalled progress toward European Union membership. The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party leads the opposition, now, after four years with the increasingly nationalist Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia, with 78 and 30 seats, respectively. There are three more minority representatives, two Muslim and one Albanian, in the parliament. Kostunica's coalition with DS collapsed in March in the wake of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia. Kostunica wanted to turn Serbia fully away from EU, but Tadic blocked him, forcing an election only 14 months after the last one. The Socialists initially negotiated a coalition with the nationalists, and even agreed an alliance to run the local government in Belgrade. So far it is not clear whether that alliance will hold or whether DS will rule the capital. Apart from the rule over Belgrade, Democrats, Socialists and their junior partners also did some hard bargaining in the division of ministries and lucrative positions in state-controlled enterprises.

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