Reactions of party-leaders

Important is to Be in

Most of the leaders were pleased with achieved results


By JASNA JANKOVIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


After "CeSID" (Center for Free Elections and Democracy) announced the initial results on January 21st, it seemed as if every party that won even one parliamentary seat was celebrating or was, at least, pleased with the results.

The party which won the most votes on parliamentary elections in Serbia is Serbian Radical Party. After initial results, Deputy president of the Party Tomislav Nikolić said: "Although we had all the Prime Minister's and the President of the Republic's parties against us, together with their uncouth campaigns, we have shown our strength, we won as it was expected. The Radical Party is the winner but we won't have the opportunity to form a government."

Boris Tadić, Serbian President and president of Democratic Party, was very pleased with the number of people who voted, and he said: "Pro-European parties have together won two thirds of the seats in Parliament. It is an extremely strong signal sent by Serbia to Europe and to the whole world. And I think it is really possible to form a pro-European government, we have a strong majority, if we have a strong decision, if we are sharing values, our goals, we are going to achieve that."

On the press conference after initial results outgoing Prime Minister of Serbia Vojislav Koštunica expressed his satisfaction with the results considering that his party, Democratic Party of Serbia (in coalition with New Serbia), was forming government, among the others. He added: "Now, as it is a common practice, we have talks on forming the government ahead of us. We are open, we expect other parties to be responsible. It is up to the President of the Republic to find a man who represents the parliamentary majority. Constructive talks can start once we have final results."

Mlađan Dinkić, president of the G17+ said that he hoped that new government would be formed by the parties of democratic block which won majority on these elections. "The election results show that the citizens have opted for the road to Europe. The best thing to do would be to form the new government by Democratic Party, Democratic Party of Serbia and G17+."

The president of the Liberal Democratic Party (in coalition with Civil Alliance of Serbia, Social Democratic Union, League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina), Čedomir Jovanović, said that they've fulfilled their goal and entered parliament. "We are entering parliament in order to change state politics about Kosovo, to arrest Mladić and Karadzić, to give lustration and to bring freedom to the victims of discrimination."

The biggest surprise on these elections was the result of Socialist Party of Serbia. Although no one believed that they would enter the parliament without Slobodan Milošević as leader, they won 5.9% of the votes. But the present leader, Ivica Dačić said: "We are not satisfied. As a Party that struggles for social justice, we deserve more."