Hardline nationalists led by a jailed war crimes suspect won Serbia's general election yesterday, putting pressure on feuding pro-Western reformers to unite if they are to form a stable government.
In a bitter blow for the politicians who toppled Slobodan Milosevic as Yugoslav president in 2000, the ultra-nationalist Radicals of former paramilitary leader Vojislav Seselj became the biggest party in parliament, initial results showed.
The Radicals won nearly 28 percent of Sunday's vote, underlining how disappointed many Serbs are with three years of Western-style economic and political change, feuding among former reform allies and allegations of government corruption.
Outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic said the result showed Serbs wanted to punish the government for failing to raise living standards faster in a country that had been battered by years of international isolation under Milosevic.
"We got what we asked for," Covic said, although some reformers have blamed the EU for not providing more development aid to help Serbia restructure its economy and create jobs.
The outcome was a setback for Western leaders hoping Serbia had turned its back on aggressive nationalism after a decade of Balkan conflicts under Milosevic, who, like Seselj, is facing war crimes charges at the UN tribunal in The Hague.
"We won this victory for Vojislav Seselj and other Hague indictees and for Serbia's citizens who had enough of being humiliated," acting Radical Party chief Tomislav Nikolic said.
Together with Milosevic's once-mighty Socialists, who ruled Serbia during the violent break-up of old Yugoslavia in the 1990s but have since lost much of their support, the Radicals would have more than 100 deputies in the 250-seat legislature.
Both Seselj and Milosevic headed the candidate lists of their respective parties.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
RSS