Issue No. 195 Friday, November 20 - Thursday, December 03, 2015 ORDER DELIVERY TO Locals Serbia’s gay New YOUR DOOR +381 11 4030 303 puzzled by couples Belgrade, [email protected] - - - - - - - ISSN 1820-8339 1 mystery face legal from swamp BELGRADE INSIGHT IS PUBLISHED BY 0 1 ‘love wall’ discrimination to city Page 5 Page 6 Page 9 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 Serbia eyes 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 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 - - - - - - - - - - Refugees fear being windfall - fromNEWS Telecom trapped in Balkans NEWS Refugees in the sale “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: Balkans fear The sale of shares 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. - - - - borders may be in Telekom Srbija - closed - leaving is dividing unions page 10 them in limbo and experts- but in countries that the government cannot deal with looks determined hile the football world watch es events unfold at the Euro refugees over a 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 to sell if right price June 13, 2008 Issue No. 1 / Friday, - - - - longer period. - is offered. BIRN Team Stevan VELJOVIĆ page 5 e are afraid elekom Srbija could that they will soon have a new owner, close the bor- provided the right bid der now. But satisfies the Serbian conomists are warning that pro over Serbia’s uncertainty longed “This year has been lost, from the we don’t fear government as the ma- 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 “Wterror much anymore. Every village jority stakeholder. E - - - - in Syria is worse than Paris… we don’t TThe minimum asking price set for - have much to lose,” a 17-year-old Syrian the government’s 58 per cent of the called Mossa told BIRN in Belgrade. shares is €1.4 billion. Mossa said that he and several of his The Privatization Agency an- Friday • June 13 2008 friends were heading for the Croatian nounced a call for non-bindings offers border and hoped to reach Western Eu- for the sale on July 3rd. Six bids had ar- rope from there. rived by November 16th, but the names But many of the refugees fear that of the bidders were not disclosed. THIS ISSUE OF their route to the EU will be blocked in Rasim Ljajić, the Minister of Trade Belgrade Insight IS SUPPORTED BY: IS SUPPORTED the wake of the Paris attacks on Novem- and Telecommunications, said on No- on a new gov ense negotiations ernment have divided the ranks th th “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 ber 13 . vember 17 that a commission will ana- 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 Continued on page 2 Refugees at the Serbia-Croatia border. Photo: BETA/AP/Darko Vojinović lyse the offers and make suggestions based on that in the third phase, which will take 14 days. He did not disclose details of the of- fers and potential investors, saying it Bosnians pessimistic could adversely affect the process of privatization. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said on November 18th that the govern- about peace deal’s legacy ment had not decided whether Tel- ekom would be sold. Regardless of their ethnicity, political affiliation or star, Prijedor, Sarajevo, Tuzla and other mended," agreed Osman Hopić, a Bos- “If we get a good price, I will be de- places across the country to gauge or- niak from the Doboj South municipality. lighted, if not, others will be happy, for economic status, many people in Bosnia and Her- dinary people’s views on Dayton’s suc- Yet this was pretty much the end of reasons that are beyond my compre- zegovina agree that the only success of the Dayton cesses and failures, as well as what they the consensus. From this point on, peo- hension,” he said. think about Bosnia and Herzegovina's ple’s views diverged in often opposing “In that case, I would probably be sad, peace agreement 20 years ago was ending the war. future - or the lack of it. directions. but I would have to accept it,” Vučić “We can say that the Dayton peace Alma from Prijedor said Dayton had added. BIRN Team While foreign diplomats, govern- agreement was successful only be- institutionalised wartime splits be- Dušan Vujović, the Minister of Fi- ment officials, activists and experts cause it stopped the bloodshed in tween ethnic groups, with politicians nance, hinted on November 18th that if his month’s 20th anniver- held discussions in upmarket confer- Bosnia and Herzegovina," said Emil from each group governing their own the bids are not satisfactory, the govern- sary of the Dayton peace ence rooms and parliamentary cham- Karamatić, a journalist and analyst fiefdoms and defending their own priv- ment may hire professional manage- deal that halted the 1992- bers, ordinary people have been having from the eastern, Bosniak-dominated ileges to the detriment of the country as ment while retaining state ownership, a 95 war has triggered re- similar conversations in the country’s part of the town of Mostar.