Serbia's mighty challenge

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Elections held this week in Serbia provide hope that this Balkan nation will at last chart a course of cooperation and integration with its neighbors. The pro-European Boris Tadic, leader of the Democratic Party, garnered 38 percent of the vote and is currently attempting to assemble a ruling coalition. The party formerly led by Slobodan Milosevic, the Socialist Party, is now a moderate left party led by Ivic Dacic and is in the position of kingmaker: 20 seats are needed in order for Mr. Tadic to obtain a majority and form the next government.

The May 11 elections were pivotal in a nation which has been at the center of much of the turbulence which has plagued the region since the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. At stake in the recent contest is whether the Serbs are willing to begin negotiations for entry into the European Union, despite the unresolved issue of the status of Kosovo. The territory has been under interim U.N. jurisdiction since 1999 following a NATO bombing campaign which routed the Serbs who were ethnically cleansing the Albanian inhabitants (they compose 90 per cent of the population). In February 2008, the Assembly of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia — and won the recognition of the United States, Britain and the European Union. Yet Belgrade, with the backing of Moscow, continues to oppose what it views as an assault on the territorial integrity of Serbia.

Despite his pro-European bent, Mr.Tadic is also unwilling to allow Kosovo to secede. However, he differs from his opponents because he insists Serbia should begin to negotiate entry into the European Union as an issue separate from the status of Kosovo. This was hotly contested by former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, leader of the Serbian Democratic Party, and Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party: They maintain Belgrade should cast its lot with Moscow and defy the European Union altogether.

Therefore the elections are ultimately about the fundamental direction the Serbs will take: Will they look to the East and continue to cultivate the fervent nationalist and anti-Western policies that led them into four wars and turned them into an international pariah? Or will they look to the West and begin to take steps — however small and tepid — toward European integration and living in prosperity with their neighbors?

The election results reveal that Serbia is still deeply divided. In his long career, Mr. Tadic has blazed a progressive path on numerous occasions. Dare we hope that he will succeed in forging a coalition, thus paving the way toward Serbia's Western transformation? Upon his shoulders rests this mighty task.