Kostunica sees presidential elections through Kosovo prism
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Wednesday that he viewed the Serbian presidential election through the prism of preserving Kosovo within Serbia, and that he could not support either of the two presidential candidates.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Thursday, January 31, 2008
Kostunica told voters that they should choose for themselves "what they will do on February 3," in the second round of election, when the choice will be between Democratic Party candidate Boris Tadic and Serbian Radical Party candidate Tomislav Nikolic.
"We wanted to back Tadic, but we cannot because he did not accept the proposal made by the Democratic Party of Serbia and New Serbia," Kostunica said.
The proposal by the two parties states that the deployment of an EU mission to Kosovo would be in violation of the initialed Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and that, in that case, the agreement could not be signed.
Kostunica also said he was sorry that the Democratic Party had not accepted the proposal.
Commenting on the EU's offer to sign a special political agreement before the SAA, the prime minister said that the agreement was "a hybrid" that lowered the level of cooperation between Serbia and the EU "below" all expectations.
According to Kostunica, the potential independence of Kosovo will affect not only Serbia, but the stability of the whole region, international law and the UN.
"This will launch a new, dangerous, devastating phase in the development of international relations, in which certain elements will allow the foundation of stability in the world so far - respect for each country as a whole - to be brought in question," Kostunica said.
Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said that there were attempts to present the EU as the main topic in the public, instead of Kosovo, which was Serbia's number one problem.
He was unable to say how Serbia would respond to the EU's invitation to sign an interim political agreement on February 7, adding that it was too early to make any statements about that.
Samardzic also said that it was difficult to talk about the EU offer, because its contents were unknown, and what Serbia would need in relations with the EU was already written in the SAA.
