Monday, May 23, 2005

Serbia: Spinning its Wheels - The International Crisis Group Report

V. CONCLUSION
Serbia's minority government appears stable, and it may
well last out its four-year mandate. This is in large part
due to the fact that the official coalition of DSS, G17+,
New Serbia (NS) and Serbian Movement of Renewal
(SPO) enjoys significant under-the-table support from
the Seselj (SRS) and Milosevic (SPS) parties.
Those parties, whose real leaders are both on trial before
the ICTY, enjoy the prerogatives of power with none of
the responsibilities. They realise that Kostunica's
political ideology is similar to theirs, that without their
active support his government would fall and that
following new elections, the opposition DS might well
be able to form a very different coalition and resume its
attempt to dismantle the ideological legacy of the
Milosevic era. They welcome or at least are satisfied
with G17+ efforts to reform the economy, while
Kostunica permits the old-line ideologues to retrench
and preach their values to the country.
This dichotomy in Serbia's political life means that
as long as G17+ is in the current government, the
international community can expect to see progress on
economic reforms. Nonetheless, in the absence of a
significant change of heart by the DSS and/or an effort to
bring the DS into the coalition, little will happen in terms
of reforming the fundamental manner in which Serbian
government and society function. Without continued
international pressure, including clear conditionality,
Serbia's reform forces are likely to find themselves
overmatched against the recidivist pressure that comes
from the nationalist parties. The result would be a Serbia
that gradually regains economic strength, while remaining
a source of potential instability in the region.
Belgrade/Brussels, 23 May 2005

SEE FULL REPORT at www.crisisweb.org

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Serbia has been and remains the primary source of insecurity and violence in the Balkans. It fought wars against Kosova, Slovenia, Bosnia and Croatia; is sheltering war criminals; is preventing Serbs in Kosova from joining in the government; and is still lying about the ethnic cleansing it conducted against non-Serbs. Serbia is more an Arab country than a European country--filled with conpiracy theories and excuses why its predicament is everyone else's fault--not its own.

Anonymous said...

It is Albanians who want to rule over Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia and oppress other races.

So Kosovo Albanians are better than Arabs, no! Arab culture is far superior than Kosovo Albanian 'culture' of hate,criminality and racism'.

Anonymous said...

You mean Albania don't you?

Anonymous said...

Arabs are also better than the Bosnian,Croatian, and Sloven culture, they're better than any culture that the Serbs haven't masacred yet.