Serbia's Diplomatic Chief Faces Hard Choices
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Issue No. 161 Friday, May 16 - Thursday, May 29, 2014 ORDER DELIVERY TO Belgrade No chance Saving YOUR DOOR +381 11 4030 303 to build Nazi of boredom the rich [email protected] - - - - - - - ISSN 1820-8339 1 death camp in golden sound BELGRADE INSIGHT IS PUBLISHED BY 0 1 memorial Bor of Sevdah Page 5 Page 9 Page 10 9 7 7 1 8 2 0 8 3 3 0 0 0 Even when the Democrats longas continue to likely is This also are negotiations Drawn-out Surely the situation is urgent Many of us who have experi We feel in-the-know because bia has shown us that (a.) no single no (a.) that us shown has bia party or coalition will ever gain the governa form to required majority negotiations political (b.) and ment, will never be quickly concluded. achieved their surprising result at last month’s general election, quickly itbecame clear that the re sult was actually more-or-less the result election other every as same in Serbia, i.e. inconclusive. as Serbia’s politicians form new political parties every time disagree with they their current party reg 342 currently are (there leader political parties in Serbia). istered the norm. One Ambassador Belgrade-based recently told me he was also alarmed by the distinct lack of urgency among politicians. Serbian “The country is standstill at and a I don’t understand their logic. If they are so eager to progress towards the EU and en theycome how investors, courage go home at 5pm sharp and don’t work weekends?” overtime. little a warrant to enough Cheap EDITOR’S WORD Predictability Political By Mark R. Pullen elections Serbian numerous enced rate ourselves as pundits when it comes to predicting election re sults and post-election moves. our experience of elections in Ser - - - - - - - - - - Serbia’s diplomatic homes - chief faces hard choices projectNEWS worriesNEWS Balancing the building “The situation in the party seems “Dacic will eventually side with Nikolic agreed: “The question is Fearing they might not cross the Pensioners leader, Jovan Krkoba The reported price is the post of In addition, the Socialists are bar Tadic has denied talk of horse- At the same time, Dacic seems re reach an agreement “If we don’t Source: Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) Balkan Insight (www.balkaninsight.com) Source: contradictory party over which way to turn. extremely complicated, as we try to convince the few remaining lag gards that we need to move out of one Socialist shadow,” Milosevic’s Party official complained. in a bid to guide his party into Tadic the European mainstream, but much of the membership and many offi cials may oppose that move.” will the party split or ‘old- back down,” he noted. timers’ threshold to enter parlia 5-per-cent ment, the Socialists teamed up with Association of Pensioners and the the led by business United Serbia Party, man Dragan Markovic “Palma”. bic, Palma and Dacic are all pushing for a deal with the Democrats. of deputy PM, with a brief in charge security for the Socialist leader. gaining for other ministries, includ ing capital investments, Kosovo and education, Belgrade media reported. trading with the Socialists, maintain ing that ministries would go only to those committed to working for the “strategic goal”. government’s negotiations with luctant to call off the nationalists. with the DSS and Radicals, par ty leadership will decide on future steps”, Dacic announced, following par new country’s of session first the liament on Wednesday. - - - - wishes of Moscow firms - Domestic and Brussels is page 10 just one of the constructors are tough tests facing reluctant to engage in the planned Serbia’s pragmatic hile the football world watch es events unfold at the Euro mass construction a strong current also However, Mihajlo Markovic, a founder of Markovic, a prominent supporter Some younger Socialist officials Neighbourhood Matters faces extinction unless it changes. flows in the opposite direction, led by party veterans enraged the Tadic. prospect of a deal with recently warned of a crisis the party, if Dacic opts for the pro-European “nat bloc, abandoning the Socialists’ ural” ideological partners. of Milosevic during the 1990s, is seen as representative of the “old- timers” in the party who want to stay policies, true to the former regime’s even though these almost ruined the Socialists for good. have voiced frustration over the con tinuing impasse within their own Football Rebellion Football pean Championships in Austria and pean Championships in Switzerland, Bosnia is experiencing led by fans, play a soccer rebellion, enraged ers and former stars who are by what they see as corrupt leaders football association of the country’s leaders. W new Foreign of social housing, June 13, 2008 Issue No. 1 / Friday, - - - - Minister, Ivica fearing the set prices - Dačić. for these homes are page 5 unrealistic. Marija RISTIĆ Katarina MARKOVIĆ ur goals are contin- he Serbian government’s an- conomists are warning that pro over Serbia’s uncertainty longed “This year has been lost, from the ued negotiations nouncement that it plans to After eight years of stagnation, the pro-European and nation With Nikolic believes the Socialists, led “The group of younger Socialists Business Insight Costs Mounting future could scare off investors, lead investors, lead future could scare off to higher inflation and jeopardise prosperity for years to come. says standpoint of economic policy,” Econom the of Stamenkovic Stojan ics Institute in Belgrade. to Serbia’s late president, Slobodan to Serbia’s Milosevic, and reformists who want the party to become a modern Euro pean social democrat organisation. the Socialists returned to centre stage after winning 20 of the 250 seats in elections. parliament in the May 11 alist blocs almost evenly matched, the Socialists now have the final say on the fate of country. by Ivica Dacic, will come over to if only out of a pragmatic de Tadic, sire to ensure their political survival. gathered around Dacic seems to be adding said, Nikolic majority”, the in that these reformists believe the party with the EU and boost construction of mass E - - - - Pristina but also cheap housing has caused - good cooperation huge interest in the public. with“O the important actors on the inter- TAleksandar Vučić, the Prime Minister, national scene,” Ivica Dačić said on his said the authorities plan to build about Friday • June 13 2008 appointment as Serbia’s Foreign Minis- 100,000 apartments, each about 80 ter in April. square metres in size. Dačić, who started his political career Vučić said the repayment period for in the Youth Committee of the Socialist the apartments would last 20 to 30 years THIS ISSUE OF Party of Serbia, quickly reached the top with interest rates of around 3 per cent. Belgrade Insight IS SUPPORTED BY: IS SUPPORTED of the party and served as a spokesper- According to him, monthly instalments on a new gov ense negotiations ernment have divided the ranks “It looks as if the Socialists will Simultaneous negotiations held This divides “old-timers” loyal Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains the Serbian kingmaker Socialist leader Ivica Dacic remains Lure of Tadic Alliance Splits Socialists Tadic Lure of government, old pro-EU While younger Socialists support joining a new, over the prospect. revolt Milosevic loyalists threaten in Belgrade By Rade Maroevic son for Serbia’s strongman, Slobodan for the flats would be about €120, which which holds of the Socialist Party, the balance of power between the blocs and has yet to announce main which side they will support. move towards a government led by the Democrats,” political analyst Mi lan Nikolic, of the independent Cen tre of Policy Studies, said. “But such a move might provoke deeper divi sions and even split the party.” with the pro-European and national ist blocs have drawn attention to a deep rift inside the Socialists. T Milošević, in the 1990s. is less than the monthly rents for apart- ments in most Serbian towns and cities. “These apartments won’t be built in city Continued on page 2 Dačić will have to find a way to juggle the interests of Brussels, Moscow and Washington. Photo by Beta centres but also won’t be in some poor locations. The plan is to build not only in Belgrade but in Niš, Kraljevo, Kruševac, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin and Kikinda,” Vučić World War I history divides Balkan schoolchildren told the weekly magazine Nedeljnik on May 8th. A hundred years on from the Sarajevo assassination, War I this summer, each of them is “There used to be only one discourse However, Serbia’s embattled construc- teaching their children a different inter- about World War I while the country tion industry is reluctant to take on the schools in former Yugoslav countries are teaching pretation of the killing that set the con- was still Yugoslavia. That country dis- job, fearing - with such low prescribed different histories about the causes of the 1914-18 war, flict in motion. appeared 23 years ago and the dis- prices – whether it will pay off. Princip is portrayed in the history course disappeared with it, because Industry bosses say that if the plan reflecting more recent conflicts. textbooks of the various former Yugo- the new countries that came out of the is to succeed, the state should exempt slav countries either as a terrorist or as former Yugoslavia had different per- builders from numerous fees and offer BIRN Team of Austria-Hungary 100 years ago – an a rebel with a cause – perceptions that ceptions of the past,” explained Nenad preferable loans in order to make the deal assassination that sparked four years reflect contemporary divisions in a Šebek, executive director of the Centre profitable.