SERBIA: Socialist leader Ivica Dacic receives the mandate to form a coalition government with President Tomislav Nikolic's nationalist Progressive party.

Record ID: 231057

  • Title: SERBIA: Socialist leader Ivica Dacic receives the mandate to form a coalition government with President Tomislav Nikolic's nationalist Progressive party.
  • Date: 28th June 2012
  • Summary: BELGRADE, SERBIA (JUNE 28, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF SERBIAN PRESIDENCY BUILDING WINDOWS SERBIAN PRESIDENT, TOMISLAV NIKOLIC (LEFT) AND LEADER OF SERBIAN SOCIALIST PARTY, IVICA DACIC (RIGHT) WITH COALITION PARTNERS SEATED DACIC TALKING NIKOLIC TALKING DACIC LISTENING MEDIA COMING OUT NIKOLIC COMING TO NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRESIDENT TOMISLAV NIKOLIC, SAYING: "I am very pleased to inform you that the leader of the coalition around the Socialist party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, has asked for a mandate to form the government of Serbia." NIKOLIC LISTENING TO REPORTERS QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) SERBIAN PRESIDENT TOMISLAV NIKOLIC, SAYING: "Our friends are in the West and in the East, in the North and the South, we do not divide our friends if they are big or small, important or less important. All our neighbours are important to us, we have a lot of common interests, especially in the economy." DESIGNATED PRIME MINISTER, IVICA DACIC, COMING TO TALK TO MEDIA CAMERAS (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) DESIGNATED PRIME MINISTER IVICA DACIC, SAYING: "As a prime minister, I put myself in the service of the Serbian people, our people, and all citizens of Serbia. I will do my job responsibly, as till now (as a Interior minister), with a clear policy, firm, defending our national and state interests, with readiness, that all problems should only be solved in the interest of citizens." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Serbian) DESIGNATED PRIME MINISTER IVICA DACIC, SAYING: "This government and I, as a Prime minister, does not mean, and I will not allow it to return into the 90s, because if I had wanted, I would have been doing that for the last four years." REPORTER TAKING NOTES DACIC LEAVING/ GETTING INTO CAR
  • Embargoed: 13th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABFORLZ07QT47RFTQ6OKS9QOTP
  • Story Text: Serbian Socialist leader Ivica Dacic received a mandate on Thursday (June 28) to form a coalition government with President Tomislav Nikolic's nationalist Progressive party, a move that may raise concerns about Belgrade's bid for European Union membership.
    "I am very pleased to inform you that the leader of the coalition around the Socialist party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, has asked for a mandate to form the government of Serbia," Tomislav Nikolic, Serbian President said at news conference.
    The new cabinet, which will also include the pro-business URS party, will have to tackle a budget deficit that by far exceeds the 4.25 percent of gross domestic product level agreed with the International Monetary Fund, public debt of over 50 percent of GDP and unemployment around 25 percent.
    It will also have to try to unblock a 1 billion euro ($1.25 billion) stand-by deal with the IMF that was frozen in February over Serbia's inflated spending and widening debt, and also work hard to win the West's trust.
    Diplomats say the EU, which made Serbia an official candidate for membership in March, had hoped Tadic would become prime minister in a coalition with the Socialists, marginalising President Nikolic and keeping the country on a pro-reform path.
    "Our friends are in the West and in the East, in North and South, we do not divide our friends if they are big or small, important or less important. All our neighbours are important to us, we have a lot of common interests, especially in the economy," Nikolic added.
    But the Socialists, once led by strongman Slobodan Milosevic, rejected proposals to revive a coalition with Tadic's Democratic party after seven weeks of talks and instead sided with Nikolic.
    Dacic was spokesman in the 1990s for Milosevic who was ousted by a reformist coalition in 2000. On this day in 2001, he was handed over to the Hague war crimes tribunal and died in detention while on trial for fomenting wars in the former Yugoslavia.
    Under Dacic, the Socialists have shed most of Milosevic's legacy since 2000 but diplomats perceive them as opportunists rather than reformers.
    "As a prime minister, I put myself in the service of the Serbian people, our people, and all citizens of Serbia. I will do my job responsibly, as till now (as a Interior minister) with a clear policy, firm, defending our national and state interests, with readiness, that all problems should only be solved in the interest of citizens," Ivica Dacic, Serbian designated Prime Minister, said.
    Dacic has said previously Serbia's former Kosovo province, which declared independence in 2008, should be partitioned between Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.
    He also said in the past Serbia should turn to more spending to spur growth instead of resorting to stringent austerity measures recommended by the IMF. |
    "This government and I, as a Prime minister, does not mean, and I will not allow it to return into the 90s, because if I had wanted, I would have been doing that for the last four years," Dacic added.
    The EU has asked Nikolic to mend ties with Kosovo before it can hope for progress in its EU bid.
    Nikolic has repeatedly said he is in favour of Serbia joining the EU and wants to speed up the process.
    However, few in the region have forgotten he once professed a wish to build a "Greater Serbia" - a dream that inspired much of the carnage in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s in which 125,000 people died.
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