Serb election victor says future lies within EU

(CNN) -- Boris Tadic celebrated his re-election as Serbia's president by pledging Monday to stay on a pro-Western course despite nationalist anger over a looming declaration of independence by Kosovo province.

Tadic, who supports Serbia's eventual membership in the European Union, edged out ultranationalist rival Tomislav Nikolic by a margin of 50.5 percent to 47.9 percent, according to the Belgrade-based Center for Free Elections and Democracy, or CeSID.

"This is Serbia which is going straight to the European Union," The Associated Press reported Tadic as telling thousands of his jubilant supporters, waving Serbian and EU flags in downtown Belgrade early Monday. "This is a victory for the whole of Serbia and its democracy."

Nikolic was an ally of former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, and he supports closer ties with Russia, Serbia's historical ally. He forced Tadic into a runoff in the first round of voting January 20, leading a field of nine with about 39 percent of the vote.

At stake Sunday was whether Serbia forged closer ties with Europe or embraced the kind of nationalism that fueled the wars that followed the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in 1991. Looming over the campaign was the drive for independence by the Serbian province of Kosovo, which has been under U.N. administration and policed by NATO peacekeepers since 1999.

Both Tadic and Nikolic opposed independence for the majority-Albanian province, which nationalists consider the cradle of Serb civilization. But Jelena Subotic, an analyst at Georgia State University in Atlanta, said the candidates differed in "how they will deal with the political reality."

CNN's Rome Bureau Chief Alessio Vinci said the election result showed Serb voters were more interested in the future prosperity promised by joining the EU than nationalist sentiment connected with Kosovo.

Unemployment is around 30 percent in Serbia, foreign investments are minimal and living standards remain amongst the lowest in the region, Vinci said. He said voters who backed Tadic know that Europe means economic and financial aid.
CNN's Robin Oakley examines the election result »

A NATO bombing campaign forced a halt to a Serb-led campaign against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population in 1999, and about 16,000 allied peacekeepers remain in the territory. Leading European Union members and the United States support the territory's independence after years of international administration -- but Russia has objected vociferously to any unilateral declaration, fearing it would encourage other separatist movements in the region.

In December, the full EU stopped short of endorsing independence, but agreed to send an 1,800-member security force to maintain stability there. And last week, the organization offered Serbia a package of incentives as part of a deal to put it on the path toward membership, including closer political ties, a free trade agreement, visa liberalization, and cooperation in education.

But Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said in December that any expedited steps toward membership also would depend on Serbia's cooperation in the arrest of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb commander who faces war crimes charges before a U.N. tribunal. E-mail to a friend

All About Serbia • Kosovo • Boris Tadic • Slobodan Milosevic