SERBIA: Serbians are divided between nationalist populists and pro-Western reformers on the upcoming elections.

Record ID: 643986

  • Title: SERBIA: Serbians are divided between nationalist populists and pro-Western reformers on the upcoming elections.
  • Date: 17th January 2007
  • Summary: LEAFLET WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF RADICAL PARTY LEADER VOJISLAV SESELJ AND DEPUTY LEADER TOMISLAV NIKOLIC
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5Q941GUILMZBAZHW8GOXINSE
  • Story Text: Serbia votes on Sunday (Jan. 21) in its most critical election since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, with voters appearing to be divided between nationalist populists and pro-Western reformers.

    Of the seven national ballots since Milosevic was ousted by reformists in 2000, no election more clearly sets the choice facing the nation of 7.5 million: vote for the Democratic bloc and join modern Europe on its terms, or choose the ultranationalist Radicals, and go at it alone.
    "The losers of the transition, people who are living worst today due to reforms in Serbia's society, will mainly decide to vote for the Serbian Radical Party. On the other hand, people who are living better today or believe that they will live better at one point in the short-term or long-term future, thanks to the reform(s) in Serbia, are potential voters of the parties of the democratic bloc," said pollster Marko Blagojevic of the CESID polling and monitoring agency.
    Radical voter Milan Velebit is one of the many Serbs who feel cheated by the slow pace of change. His salary is 300 euros a month and he says six years of reform have failed to provide the prosperity and fairness citizens need in a country saddled with poverty, unemployment and corruption.
    "The greatest problem in Serbia at this moment is the general state of things, high unemployment, workers getting fired, the economy in chaos, everything in chaos," Velebit says.
    He hopes the dynamism of Radical Party will tidy up the country.
    "I think that the Serb Radical Party could help the people, with great effort of course. Even though everything is destroyed we would try to build a national identity and pride, survive and in some years to live as normally as possible," Velebit said.
    Voters like Velebit have nothing in common with the other large group of people who are betting on the pro-Western parties to improve their life.
    Voters like Danko Runic, a British-educated activist, who says the time for nationalism is well and truly over and the only way forward is to face the past and move on.
    "This ideology, I see it as a long term project and I think that in five or ten years it will be better in Serbia, but the main issues are of course, the young people who have never travelled out of this country. One of the issues are also, maybe the most important issue is coming to terms with a history, coming to terms with the legacy of this country. Someone needs to look at the people of this country in the eyes and say we have killed this many people in Croatia, in Bosnia, in Kosovo. And these are things that cannot be done, cannot be repeated," Runic said.
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