Europe, Headlines

SERBIA: Socialists Return With a New Look

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, May 15 2008 (IPS) - The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), once a synonym for the rule of former leader Slobodan Milosevic, has returned into the spotlight as the kingmaker of a new government due to be formed in coming weeks.

The former communist party, re-named “Socialist” in the early 1990s, developed a reputation as the nationalist, warmongering and authoritarian regime of Milosevic, who was ousted from power in October 2000.

Under Milosevic’s SPS, Serbs saw the disintegration of former Yugoslavia through wars that took more than 100,000 lives, and the disappearance of the ideals of social justice due to hyperinflation and international sanctions.

In elections since 2000 the SPS, which once controlled the army, the police and economy, fell to the margins. But with 20 MPs through the parliamentary elections last Sunday, the SPS has returned to the political scene as a decisive factor.

The pro-European Democratic Party (DS) of President Boris Tadic with 103 MPs in the 250-member legislative, and the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) of Tomislav Nikolic with 78 MPs in likely partnership with 40 MPs of outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), both need SPS as a coalition partner.

Nikolic and Kostunica say the SPS is their “natural partner”, but it is a coalition of pro-European forces and the SPS, along with minority groups, that is imminent now, a well-placed DS source told IPS.

“We cannot miss the opportunity of moving faster towards Europe,” he said. “The SPS of the 1990s and now are two different things. We were foes, but new people are both within DS and in SPS now. This will give Serbia a solid government to last four years.”

The DS and the alliance of parties around it had toppled Milosevic in 2000. The first post-Milosevic Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic who masterminded the ousting of Milosevic was assassinated in 2003. Milosevic died in the detention unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2006 while awaiting trial for atrocities in the 1990s. Djindjic handed him over to the ICTY in 2001.

“Now is the opportunity for the SPS to reform, put the legacy of Milosevic behind, and transform into a modern party of the left,” political analyst Jovo Bakic told B92 Radio. “Serbia lacks the traditional political spectrum of left, centre and right due to the specific circumstances of the 90s. It’s time to forget the division into ‘patriots’ and ‘traitors’ and settle into a normal political scene.”

Marko Blagojevic from the Centre for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) told IPS that the SPS can only improve in a coalition with pro-European forces, however odd this may at first appear.

“In a nationalist coalition, the Radicals would consume SPS voters, as the SPS cannot compete with ultra-nationalists in the field of nationalism,” Blagojevic said. “On the other hand, in a pro-European coalition, SPS could be reformed and become a real left-oriented force whose main programme is social justice.”

Although not openly, SPS leader Ivica Dacic has been trying for months now to shrug off Milosevic’s legacy. His electoral campaign centred on better social conditions for the losers of transition, and not on nationalist issues.

It is also a well-known ambition of Dacic for SPS to join Socialist International (SI), the worldwide organisation of social-democratic, socialist and labour parties. Under Milosevic the party could never do that.

No party from Serbia is a member of SI. However, the DS is a consultative member, with a decision of the Council of SI pending whether to upgrade the DS to full membership. DS official Dragoslav Micunovic has said in recent interviews that the DS could “help” the SPS in this direction.