Europe News
Serbian ultra-nationalists to rule Belgrade (Roundup)
By DPA
May 15, 2008, 15:10 GMT

Belgrade - Parties opposing close Serbian ties with the West announced a preliminary deal Thursday to govern the capital Belgrade, signalling the prospect that anti-Western policy will also dominate the nation's newly-elected parliament.

The ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the late Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party (SPS) agreed on a majority for the city council only four days after Sunday's elections.

'There is a will for changes in the city and for new city authorities. We agreed the principles on which the new government will work,' Aleksandar Vucic, the SRS candidate for Belgrade mayor, told reporters.

'We will continue talks on concrete issues and we are positive that in the short time we will be able to inform you on personnel solutions', he said.

In another sign that Serbia may be headed for a hard-line shift, Tanjug news agency reported that Radicals, Socialists and Kostunica were meeting Thursday to discuss a possible governing coalition for Serbia.

Kostunica's party expressed optimism that a deal could be reached shortly.

Serbs voted in snap parliamentary and municipal elections on Sunday. The three nationalist parties won 128 seats in the 250-seat parliament - enough for a governing majority.

The coalition behind the pro-European President Boris Tadic won 102 seats, but may remain out of the government if SRS, DSS and SPS forge a government coalition.

The distribution of votes was similar in most big cities, with Belgrade, the hub of virtually all aspects of life in Serbia, by far the most important.

A Radical leader, Dragan Todorovic, said earlier that the Radicals and DSS would work together at all levels of government, from local to national. He said he expected the Socialists to join.

'I expect the coalition to function at all levels,' he said.

SRS leader Tomislav Nikolic and Kostunica promised before the polls to scrap Serbia's pre-membership agreement with European Union in protest at Western support of Kosovo's secession from Serbia.

Socialist leader Ivica Dacic said Thursday, after the party's top board met, that his party was ready to talk with anyone who will accept what he called their principles of social justice and equality.

The SPS was widely regarded as the most responsible for the violent disintegration of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. It has never renounced Milosevic, though its leaders, now eight years in opposition, are showing a more tolerant, modern face.

Tadic earlier said his party shares the ideology of welfare for citizens with the Socialists and stressed that that he would have no problem working with them. So far, Tadic's camp has not publicly contacted the SPS.