Serbia Turns Back on Virulent Nationalism

[pampango]

Source: NY Times

Only two years ago Aleksandar Vucic, deputy leader of Serbia’s main opposition Progressive Party, was a leading voice of a party that hosted tens of thousands at nationalist rallies where indicted war criminals spoke and participants sang rousing songs vowing to fight to the last drop of blood for Kosovo. Now, a chastened Mr. Vucic flies to Brussels and Washington for meetings with European and American diplomats and talks on Serbia’s inevitable path toward the European Union and the West.

Mr. Vucic acknowledges what veteran opposition leaders dared to voice as long ago as the late 1980s, when Mr. Milosevic was ascendant and the destruction of Yugoslavia loomed. “The biggest problem in Serbia is not Kosovo,” Mr. Vucic said in an interview. “It is the Serbian economy, unemployment, corruption, and low living standards.”

Across the border in Bosnia, the prospect of joining the European Union could help bind the fragile multiethnic country together after the economy shrank 3.4 percent last year. Yet analysts fear that parliamentary and presidential elections on Sunday may accentuate ethnic divisions, making European integration even more elusive.

Other remnants of the old Yugoslavia, however, are doing better. Slovenia is a prospering member of the E.U. and NATO; Croatia, its southern neighbor, hopes to follow it into the Union. Montenegro, small and mired by organized crime, is still on an upward trajectory. Even fledgling Kosovo, desperately poor and struggling to overcome corruption, is finally gaining greater international legitimacy.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/world/europe/02iht-serbia.html

[nradisic]

1. As a Serbian-American I say good...

How funny that someone who was actually born in Belgrade is the first person to reply to this post?

My Mom, Dad and Sister still live in Serbia and I have tons of family there. I hope and pray that my birth country will be able to overcome the massive obstacles that have plagued it and its people...hopefully, after years of war, hatred and economic sanctions my people can come together for the sake of all Serbs and move ahead to make the necessary changes and adjustments that are needed to join the rest of Europe.

Good article...

[pampango]

2. Thanks for the post. Countries have made the transition from "years of war, hatred and economic

sanctions" before. Let's all hope that the future for Serbia and its people is brighter as a member of Europe.

[cilla4progress]

3. Maybe this bodes well

for US, too! :D