The Serbian parliamentary elections were held on 11 of May after the fall of government two months ago. The turnout was 60,7%. The winner of the elections is Democratic party with 38% of support, 5-10% more than it was predicted by the public opinion agencies. Serbian radical party (SRS) and Democratic party of Serbia (DSS) are considered as losers, winning together 40 % (SRS 29%, DSS 11%). Except them, Socialist party of Serbia (SPS) got 7,9% and Liberal democrat party (LDP) 5,2%. Two minorities' parties got 3%.

The major reasons for these results are signing of Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union and the agreement of Fiat with the Serbian car manufacturer which is not working for the last 20 years.

On the other hand, Democratic Party also played on Kosovo card, convincing people that Kosovo will remain in Serbia after the accession of Serbia in the EU, although every reasonable person should be aware of the fact that Kosovo will never again be part of Serbia.

Now, the main issue is who will form the government and with whose support.

Basically, everything depends on Milosevic's SPS. The party is ideologically closer to SRS and DSS, but this is its chance to step away from the past and Milosevic's heritage, to become a real socialist party and even a member of Socialists' international.

The problem would still be the cooperation with the Hague tribunal, against which is SPS and the cancellation of warrant against Milosevic family. SPS could make the minority government with DS, with the parliamentary support of LDP or majority government together with minorities, because either LDP or SPS don't want to be together in the government.

The other possibility is that SPS makes a deal with SRS and DSS, which already made an initial agreement. The negotiations between these three parties have already started and SPS will give its final answer tomorrow morning. They could form a strong nationalist government and their coalition is also possible on local level, especially in the capital of Belgrade.

In a following few days, it will be known if SRS, DSS and SPS will make the coalition and new government. If not, the predictions are that DS and SPS will negotiate until the end of May to find the best solution.

If all the negotiations fall, there is still a possibility of having new elections in a couple of months...

Lucia Vesnic-Alujevic
Belgrade - Serbia

Send your comments:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it