Daily: Agreement on date for early elections

A Belgrade daily writes that agreement has been reached for Serbia to hold early parliamentary elections in December. The mentioning of December 18 as the date for elections by the Serb Progressive Party (SNS) is actually the result of separate talks held recently in Brussels and Belgrade by EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and Serbian President and Democratic Party (DS) leader Boris Tadic and SNS leader Tomislav Nikolic. Daily: Agreement on date for early elections This is according to an article published by the Belgrade-based daily Danas on Tuesday. The newspaper quotes Fule’s associates as sources of the information. These unnamed associates said that the choice of this date was the result of compromise since Tadic said during the talks with Fule that the elections should be held only once the EU Council in December brings the formal and final decision on Serbia’s candidacy for membership – which means that the elections would be held in 2012 – while Nikolic maintained that they should be held in October or November. The newspaper adds, citing the same sources, that the European Commission will, upon determining its opinion on Serbia’s candidacy, most likely propose to the EU Council that the country should receive candidate status, but not also a date for negotiations on membership. This should in any event suit DS, said the source, “a close associate of Fule’s”. “Tadic is more reliable to Brussels and a more likely political associate then Nikolic, of whom it is never certain if he has indeed decided to become a pro-European”, the source said. To the question of why Nikolic had gone and publicly mentioned December 18 as the last offer to DS to call early elections, even though it was in fact an agreement, Danas’s sources estimate that the SNS leader was “in this way trying to present to the citizens that he was forcing the authorities into something”. The daily writes that Fule discussed the issue of forming of the grand coalition of Democrats and Progressives at the meetings with Tadic and Nikolic. “According to some Fule’s associates, the EU would not mind such a coalition, because it would mean that Serbia would be politically stable for four years, and the authority would not have possibility to have an excuse for non-implementation of the reforms”, the daily wrote. “In addition to it, SNS would not mind to have an alliance with DS, because the party expects that it would be a senior partner, i.e. that it would have more ministries and no little hand in the government. On the other hand, DS will hardly accept something of the kind, because they do not like SNS to set conditions to them, and they count on that they would be capable to form government with their current partners such are the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), minorities and perhaps the United Regions of Serbia (headed by Mladjan Dinkic),” the newspaper concluded.

Daily: Agreement on date for early elections

This is according to an article published by the Belgrade-based daily Danas on Tuesday.

The newspaper quotes Fule’s associates as sources of the information.

These unnamed associates said that the choice of this date was the result of compromise since Tadić said during the talks with Fule that the elections should be held only once the EU Council in December brings the formal and final decision on Serbia’s candidacy for membership – which means that the elections would be held in 2012 – while Nikolić maintained that they should be held in October or November.

The newspaper adds, citing the same sources, that the European Commission will, upon determining its opinion on Serbia’s candidacy, most likely propose to the EU Council that the country should receive candidate status, but not also a date for negotiations on membership.

This should in any event suit DS, said the source, “a close associate of Fule’s”.

“Tadić is more reliable to Brussels and a more likely political associate then Nikolić, of whom it is never certain if he has indeed decided to become a pro-European”, the source said.

To the question of why Nikolić had gone and publicly mentioned December 18 as the last offer to DS to call early elections, even though it was in fact an agreement, Danas’s sources estimate that the SNS leader was “in this way trying to present to the citizens that he was forcing the authorities into something”.

The daily writes that Fule discussed the issue of forming of the grand coalition of Democrats and Progressives at the meetings with Tadić and Nikolić.

“According to some Fule’s associates, the EU would not mind such a coalition, because it would mean that Serbia would be politically stable for four years, and the authority would not have possibility to have an excuse for non-implementation of the reforms”, the daily wrote.

“In addition to it, SNS would not mind to have an alliance with DS, because the party expects that it would be a senior partner, i.e. that it would have more ministries and no little hand in the government. On the other hand, DS will hardly accept something of the kind, because they do not like SNS to set conditions to them, and they count on that they would be capable to form government with their current partners such are the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), minorities and perhaps the United Regions of Serbia (headed by Mlađan Dinkić),” the newspaper concluded.