"SPS leader eyes premiership"

According to reports, the DS and SPS-led coalitions have reached "a principal agreement" to conclude cabinet negotiations by Tuesday. Daily Blic also writes today that the constitutive session of the parliament Wednesday will elect a speaker and his or her deputy, along with the forming of new parliamentary councils. "SPS leader eyes premiership" United Serbia (JS) leader Dragan Markovic Palma told another Belgrade daily, Vecernje Novosti, that the meeting of the coalition gathered around the Socialists (SPS) would be held on Tuesday. At that meeting, he said, this pre-election coalition would make a joint decision on who to join in a new government. But Blic also quotes an anonymous source close to the leadership of the SPS as saying that the party’s leader Ivica Dacic has increased his demands, and that in negotiations with the Democrats (DS), he would be seeking to become prime minister. However, the same source added that the demand was "negotiable". Another interview that Blic brings today is with an outgoing speaker Oliver Dulic, DS, who said that it was very important for the future government to last its entire mandate and that "every party and coalition should see it at its own". "Every party should be satisfied and should be in charge of the portfolios where they can best implement their programs. If the government was to be formed in such a way, all parties would have high positions, including the SPS”, Dulic told the newspaper. Leader of one of five parties the DS gathered in a pre-election coalition, Nenad Canak of the Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV), told B92 that there was a possibility that the SPS-led group would enter a new government, but that it was "unrealistic" for Dacic to become prime minister. Premier would be someone from the DS or a person very close to that party, added Canak. "It is completely unrealistic, because that would mean the absolute defeat of the Democratic Party. It is not realistic that anyone should impose their conditions, such as for Ivica Dacic to become prime minister,” Canak said. Political analyst and former Djelic adviser Vladimir Todoric, who took part in the same B92 TV program, agrees that Dacic will unlikely claim the top spot in the next cabinet. "That would be bad move both for Dacic and the DS," Todoric said. "I believe that it would have a disastrous effect for the DS, because there would be protests within it. I also think that Dacic understood the example of Vojislav Kostunica’s erosion as PM. That means that he could not influence the politics of the government and would be taking responsibilities for a policy he could not control,” the analyst said. Todoric added that the SPS leader "could ask for a portfolio where he could achieve certain results during the four-year mandate". "Those results would be needed to bring back the electoral body that would probably turn its back on the SPS due to its coalition with the DS,” Todoric said. Commenting on a statement by the DS Leader Boris Tadic Saturday that both the Democrats and the Socialists had their “pain for lost presidents,” Canak said that, even though he agreed to the possible coalition with the SPS, "he would never forget what the SPS represents". “That party, in whatever way they wanted to represent themselves, is simply not reformed,” Canak said. "We are now in a position where we need to make this sort of compromise and where I have this choice – should I swallow all the humiliation, since every coalition with the SPS is humiliating, or will my son, who is nine, be in that position,” he continued. All this, Canak added, "did not mean that he would suddenly go dumb, dull and deaf and forget all that had happened". "They could have at least expelled Mihalj Kertes," the LSV leader lamented, mentioning the Milosevic-era customs chief, still an SPS member, currently on trial for embezzlement. "That’s all they had to do. Just to say: Kertes stole from the customs and that’s why we’re expelling him,” Canak said.

"SPS leader eyes premiership"

United Serbia (JS) leader Dragan Marković Palma told another Belgrade daily, Večernje Novosti, that the meeting of the coalition gathered around the Socialists (SPS) would be held on Tuesday.

At that meeting, he said, this pre-election coalition would make a joint decision on who to join in a new government.

But Blic also quotes an anonymous source close to the leadership of the SPS as saying that the party’s leader Ivica Dačić has increased his demands, and that in negotiations with the Democrats (DS), he would be seeking to become prime minister.

However, the same source added that the demand was "negotiable".

Another interview that Blic brings today is with an outgoing speaker Oliver Dulić, DS, who said that it was very important for the future government to last its entire mandate and that "every party and coalition should see it at its own".

"Every party should be satisfied and should be in charge of the portfolios where they can best implement their programs. If the government was to be formed in such a way, all parties would have high positions, including the SPS”, Dulić told the newspaper.

Leader of one of five parties the DS gathered in a pre-election coalition, Nenad Čanak of the Vojvodina Social-Democrats (LSV), told B92 that there was a possibility that the SPS-led group would enter a new government, but that it was "unrealistic" for Dačić to become prime minister.

Premier would be someone from the DS or a person very close to that party, added Čanak.

"It is completely unrealistic, because that would mean the absolute defeat of the Democratic Party. It is not realistic that anyone should impose their conditions, such as for Ivica Dačić to become prime minister,” Čanak said.

Political analyst and former Đelić adviser Vladimir Todorić, who took part in the same B92 TV program, agrees that Dačić will unlikely claim the top spot in the next cabinet.

"That would be bad move both for Dačić and the DS," Todorić said.

"I believe that it would have a disastrous effect for the DS, because there would be protests within it. I also think that Dačić understood the example of Vojislav Koštunica’s erosion as PM. That means that he could not influence the politics of the government and would be taking responsibilities for a policy he could not control,” the analyst said.

Todorić added that the SPS leader "could ask for a portfolio where he could achieve certain results during the four-year mandate".

"Those results would be needed to bring back the electoral body that would probably turn its back on the SPS due to its coalition with the DS,” Todorić said.

Commenting on a statement by the DS Leader Boris Tadić Saturday that both the Democrats and the Socialists had their “pain for lost presidents,” Čanak said that, even though he agreed to the possible coalition with the SPS, "he would never forget what the SPS represents".

“That party, in whatever way they wanted to represent themselves, is simply not reformed,” Čanak said.

"We are now in a position where we need to make this sort of compromise and where I have this choice – should I swallow all the humiliation, since every coalition with the SPS is humiliating, or will my son, who is nine, be in that position,” he continued.

All this, Čanak added, "did not mean that he would suddenly go dumb, dull and deaf and forget all that had happened".

"They could have at least expelled Mihalj Kertes," the LSV leader lamented, mentioning the Milošević-era customs chief, still an SPS member, currently on trial for embezzlement.

"That’s all they had to do. Just to say: Kertes stole from the customs and that’s why we’re expelling him,” Čanak said.