REPUBLIC OF SERBIA• Official name: Republika Srbija (Republic of Serbia)
Following the Balkan Wars of 1912, Serbia annexed Macedonia. After the First World War, Serbia became the core of a new state, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, incorporating the former Habsburg territories of Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia as well as the Kingdom of Montenegro. This state was destroyed by the German invasion of 1941. Yugoslavia was reconstituted by the Communists led by Josip Broz Tito in 1945, with Serbia as one of six constituent republics. Within Serbia, the Albanian-majority district of Kosovo and the multi-ethnic area of Vojvodina became autonomous regions. Tito died in 1980, and Yugoslavia became a looser federal state. With the collapse of Communist rule in 1990, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia all seceded amid bitter civil wars. Serbia under the diehard Communist Slobodan Milosevic sought to prevent these secessions, and then tried to expel the Albanian population from Kosovo. In 1999 Serbia was heavily bombed by NATO until Milolevic agreed to withdraw. Kosovo was placed until international administration and became independent in 2008. In 2000 Milosevic was overthrown after attempting to rig presidential elections, and Vojislav Kostunica became president of Yugoslavia. He sought to prevent the secession of Montenegro, which would leave Serbia isolated and landlocked, by negotiating a loose federation. In February 2003 Yugoslavia ceased to exist and an entity called Serbia and Montenegro came into existence. Kostunica twice tried to be elected President of Serbia, but was frustrated by an opposition boycott which held the turnout below 50%, rendering the elections invalid. In May 2006 Montenegro voted to become independent, a decision which Serbia accepted, thus also becoming independent. Serbia has however not recognised the independence of Kosovo. 
The dominant force in Serbian politics is now the liberal, pro-western For a European Serbia (ZES) coalition, led by Boris Tadic, who has been President of Serbia since July 2004. The largest component of the coalition is the Democratic Party (DS). This party should not be confused with Kostunica's party, the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), which is in opposition. The anti-western parties are the extreme nationalist Serb Radical Party and the semi-Communist Serb Socialist Party. Other parties are liberal free-market G-17 Plus (founded by a group of 17 economists), and the conservative Serbian Progressive Party. The declaration of independence of Kosovo in February 2008 sparked a political crisis in Serbia, with all parties competing for the banner of Serbian nationalism, yet none having a realistic policy for preventing Kosovo's independence. The ZES walked a fine line between protesting against the EU's support for Kosovo independence and its policy of steering Serbia towards EU membership. In snap elections in May, the ZES made substantial gains, mainly at the expense of Kostunica's DSS. The Radicals also lost ground, but the Socialists gained. After the election, and despite their anti-EU stand, the Socialists joined a ZES-led coalition under Mirko Cvetkovic, a non-party technocrat. Freedom House's 2009 report on Serbia says: "Serbia is an electoral democracy... Both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2008 were deemed free and fair by international monitoring groups... Serbia has made some progress in the battle against corruption since the Milosevic period, but it remains a serious concern. Serbia was ranked 85 out of 180 countries surveyed in Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index... The press is generally free and operates with little government interference, although most media outlets are thought to be aligned with specific political parties... Citizens enjoy freedoms of assembly and association. Foreign and domestic nongovernmental organizations have the freedom to pursue their activities... Legal and judicial reform has been slow in recent years because of the complicated political situation. The EU’s 2008 progress report on Serbia noted that the quality and professionalism of judges is relatively high, and that pay for judges has improved, but it cited concerns over the investigative capacity of the prosecutorial service and political influence in the selection of judges." Updated December 2009 |
