Serbs wrap up dirty campaign as election looms

May 9, 2008, 11:42 GMT

Belgrade - Serb politicians finally were muzzled by a media blackout ahead of Sunday's snap elections, ending a marathon campaign that was the dirtiest since the era of Slobodan Milosevic and left voters weary.

Scrambling for votes in the wake of Kosovo's Western-backed split from Serbia, nationalist leaders from the governing coalition pumped up the 'patriotic' rhetoric before campaigning stopped Friday, branding their former pro-European allies as traitors.

The anti-Western bloc, including the surging ultra-nationalist opposition Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's coalition, wants Serbia to turn away from EU aspirations in protest at Western backing for Kosovo.

Pro-Europeans, led by President Boris Tadic and his Democratic Party (DS), insist that Serbia must remain on a Western course.

'You betrayed Kosovo, and now it hurts you when we call you traitors. Well, we don't have a different word. Boris is a traitor,' said Kostunica's coalition partner and cabinet minister Velimir Ilic.

Kostunica's government fell in March after splitting over Kosovo's independence, prompting Sunday's early parliamentary elections. Serbs voted for a new president only in February.

Tadic signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with European Union in April, drawing fire from Kostunica's nationalists who called it a backoor recognition of Kosovo and vowed to revoke the deal after the election.

Kostunica appears to be drifting to a coalition with SRS, which has been tipped to remain the strongest single bloc in parliament after May 11.

Traditionally among the most belligerent speakers, SRS leader Tomislav Nikolic this time watered down the rhetoric, refusing to cut Europe off and throwing in easy promises of close ties with Russia, work for everybody and many new kindergartens.

Responding to Kostunica's claims that the EU secretly altered the association deal, Tadic accused his rival of 'lying ... for cheap political points.'

In addition to interviews, debates, rallies and political ads that burned up hours of television airtime daily, the campaign also featured anonymous attack clips.

The short films recalled bread queues, refugee columns and bombings from the 1990s Milosevic era of confrontation with the West, but also of corruption scandals and inefficiency that have marred the administration run by Tadic's DS.

A dark tone was added with posters that appeared a day after the deal with EU was signed, branding Tadic and his deputy Bozidar Djelic as traitors. Also portrayed was Punisa Racic, a Serbian politician who killed several deputies in the Yugoslav assembly in 1928.

'I'm convinced that this was the dirtiest campaign of any in recent history,' Belgrade political science professor Jelena Djordjevic told B92 radio.

'The partition between patriots and traitors is a dangerous signal for the witch-hunt to begin. It ends ... in violent elimination, with civil war,' sociologist Zarko Trebjesanin warned.

The average Serb, confused and torn between patriotism and humiliation over Kosovo's loss and the pragmatic wish for a better economy and free travel promised within the EU, were simply fatigued after months of mud-slinging.

'They all just talk, I was sick of it weeks ago (and) hardly watched any of the campaign,' said Vladeta, 72, a carpenter forced to continue working years beyond his retirement to boost his meagre pension.

Many younger Serbs are turned off by the election, billed - yet again - as crucial for the troubled country's future.

After all, some polls say up to four-fifths of students in Serbia would rather emigrate after graduation than try to build a life at home.