KOSOVO: Kosovo Albanians and Serbs react differently to the victory of Tomislav Nikolic in Serbia's re-run presidential elections

Record ID: 864081

  • Title: KOSOVO: Kosovo Albanians and Serbs react differently to the victory of Tomislav Nikolic in Serbia's re-run presidential elections
  • Date: 22nd May 2012
  • Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO (MAY 21, 2012) (REUTERS) VIEW OF PRISTINA PEOPLE ON STREET NEWSPAPERS STAND
  • Embargoed: 6th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kosovo
  • City:
  • Country: Kosovo
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAERTA9XHHWSDWFP5WNJTXUCM1T
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The victory of opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic in Serbia's presidential elections is seen differently by Albanians and Serbs living in Kosovo.
    Albanians said nothing will change in the Serbian attitude towards Kosovo, while Kosovo Serbs hope things will get better for them with the new president.
    Opposition leader Tomislav Nikolic, last in power when Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia was bombed by NATO in 1999, was elected president on Sunday and pledged to keep the former Yugoslav republic moving towards the European Union.
    Nikolic's victory caused unease in Kosovo and Serbia's other ex-Yugoslav neighbours for whom Nikolic remains Milosevic's ideological heir and an unapologetic nationalist, in government in 1999 when Serb forces expelled almost 1 million ethnic Albanians from Kosovo and NATO intervened with air strikes.
    "It is bad for Serbia which is in decline. The main figure of the Serbian radicalism and chauvinism is Nikolic," said Hamdi Tasholli, a pensioner from Pristina.
    "For Kosovo, it's the same - both of them, Tadic and Nikolic are the same," said Hashim Sadiku on the street of the capital, Prisitina.
    Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade still controls a small slice of the north where Serbs live, in a de facto ethnic partition that the West said it would never allow. Kosovo Serbs hope that Nikolic's election victory will have a positive impact on their lives.
    "We expect things to get better. It wasn't bad this way either, we will continue to live in Kosovo," said Vesna, a nurse from Gracanica, a Serb enclave in central Kosovo, 10 km away from Pristina.
    "I think it was about time as he (Tadic) was in power for eight years and there were no changes, he fought a lot as a man and president (Tadic) but he couldn't do more" said Milorad Milovanovic, a pensioner.
    Like Tadic and most major parties, Nikolic says he will never recognise Kosovo as independent, but the EU does expect Belgrade to loosen its grip on the north and improve relations with Pristina.
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