[ Serbia ]

With the signing of the SAA agreement and the upcoming elections, Serbia is in the centre of attention this week. The SAA agreement - although it has only been signed and has not taken effect yet - has sparked a lot of discontent, first and foremoth in Serbia's neighbouring countries: Bosnia which is also waiting to sign an SAA and Albania which signed it in 2006.

Moreover, as E. Rathfelder writes for the TAZ, the SAA agreement is not seen as a victory of Tadic - who enjoys high-level protection after he received death threats -, but as his yielding to EU pressure:

"In der Presse werden nicht die proeuropäischen Kräfte unter Präsident Boris Tadic, sondern der bisherige Ministerpräsident Vojislav Kostunica gelobt. Die Entscheidung der EU wird als Kapitulation Brüssels und als ein Sieg Kostunicas interpretiert."

Cf. also the summaries of EU media's analyses on Eurotopics.

In another attempt to reach out to the Serbian population, 16 EU countries + Norway propose to end visa charges for Serbian citizens "with a view to full liberalization of the visa regime".

Nevertheless, the election poll on the B92 website predicts a victory of the DSS/SRS in the upcoming parliamentary and local elections:

Who will form the next Serbian government?
The DS coalition alone		237
The Radicals (SRS) alone		256
The DS coalition and one minor party		407
The SRS with the DSS		709
The Radicals, DSS, and one minor party		390
A different post-election coalition		49
Don't know		122

Another poll conducted on 30 April sees the radical SRS in the lead with 33.2%, followed by the coalition around Tadic's Democrat Party (DS) with 31.5%. At the same time, this same poll apparently shows that 53% of Serbs in support the signing of the SAA.

The elections will also be held in Kosovo, although UNMIK had indicated that this would go against resolution 1244 (which is often invoked by the Serbian government to argue against Kosovo's independence).