Tadic vote was a vote for Europe, say Serbian newspapers

Feb 4, 2008, 13:05 GMT

Serbia\'s President and presidential candidate Boris Tadic waves to supporters after his headquarters claimed victory in presidential elections in Belgrade, Serbia, 03 February 2008. EPA/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC

Belgrade - 'Serbia elected Europe,' the Belgrade daily Danas said Monday in analysing the victory of incumbent Boris Tadic in Sunday's presidential election run-off.

Tadic defeated his ultra-nationalist challenger, Tomislav Nikolic, in a race for the largely ceremonial office that, however, carried the weight of a referendum on Serbia's future course.

'Victory of the European Serbia,' 'Serbia votes for Tadic and the road to the EU' and 'Serbia conquers Europe' were some of the headlines in newspapers which were opposition media during the time of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. Milosevic died in 2006 while undergoing a war crimes trial at The Hague.

Nikolic's Serbian Radical Party was a key part of Milosevic's regime. He said that Belgrade should freeze its progress toward EU membership over the support of big Western powers for the secession of Kosovo from Serbia.

The stately Politika and the mass-circulation Vecernje Novosti reported the outcome without analysing much, while the boulevard daily Press noted that Tadic's razor-thin win with 120,000 of the 6.7 million registered votes showed how divided Serbia is.

Tadic won 50.5 per cent of the votes cast to Nikolic's 47.9 per cent. Turnout was high at 67 per cent.

The outcome may quickly test the uneasy coalition of Tadic's Democratic Party with conservative Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia.

Like Nikolic, Kostunica wants to freeze Serbia's relations with the EU and NATO over Kosovo, which is expected to declare independence within weeks, while Tadic insists that Serbia must remain on course for European integration regardless of the fate of its breakaway province.

During the campaign Tadic had refused to promise to back Serbia's withdrawal from talks on EU membership over Kosovo in exchange for Kostunica's support.

Their relations could come under strain on Thursday when the EU is set to offer Serbia a broad political and economic cooperation deal.