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West-friendly Boris Tadic wins Serbian presidential vote

The EU yesterday welcomed with relief the reelection of pro-Western Serbian President Boris Tadic, saying it would speed up moves towards EU candidacy for the biggest former Yugoslav republic.

The electoral commission gave Tadic 50.6 percent of the vote against 47.8 percent for his challenger, Tomislav Nikolic.

"The results for me at least signaled the wish of the majority of the people in Serbia who want to continue the path towards Europe and I'd like to say Europe is very happy with that," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement on Sunday's vote.

"We will continue working with Serbia and we'd like Serbia to get as close as possible as rapidly as possible toward the European road," he told reporters.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called Tadic's narrow win "a victory for democracy in Serbia and for the European values we share."

EU MEMBERSHIP

The commission wanted to accelerate Serbia's progress toward EU membership, starting with the signing of an interim cooperation agreement on trade, political dialogue, visa liberalization and education cooperation.

The election was seen as a referendum on how Serbia should deal with the West and in particular the EU, after the imminent loss of the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Tadic says EU membership must remain a priority whatever happens, but analysts say his narrow victory may have set up a fresh struggle over the country's future course.

Nikolic has advocated turning to Russia in place of the West.

Solana said he would speak to Tadic later yesterday to discuss the possible signing this week of the interim accord, offered by EU foreign ministers last week because Belgrade has not yet met the condition for a formal EU Stabilization and Cooperation Agreement.

The Slovenian EU presidency said on Sunday it welcomed the high turnout in an election, which appeared to be "free and fair" in a preliminary assessment.

CONDITIONS

Conceding defeat, Nikolic, a former ally of late nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic, called on Europe to "stop blackmailing" Belgrade.

"We are ready to be within the EU, but there are some conditions we cannot fulfill," he said, referring to pressure on Serbia to accept an expected announcement of unilateral independence by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.

Serbia's EU accession has been hampered by Belgrade's failure to capture and handover war crimes fugitives like Bosnian genocide suspect Ratko Mladic.

In Belgrade, fireworks erupted before Tadic appeared at a window overlooking the main Terazije avenue to a rapturous reception from cheering supporters.

"This is Serbia's victory. I think we have proven both to Europe and everywhere else in the world what kind of democracy we have in Serbia," Tadic said.

"We give support today to our fellow people in Kosovo and show them that we will never let them down," he said.

Both candidates had opposed independence for the Serbian province, which many Serbs view as the cradle of their culture.
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