In what is excellent news for Europe as a whole and the many moderates within Serbia, the coalition of pro-European parties, led by President Boris Tadic, have claimed victory in Serbias elections. Due to the declaration of independence of Kosovo and the fact that the EU officially recognized and supported the declaration, there had been a lot of speculation that the nationalist parties would score a victory. These parties hold their sympathy with Milosevic and their ilk, and amongst their goals were leaving discussions with the EU for membership of Serbia and shielding Serbian war criminals from international courts. The Serbian people, as upset as many were with the independence of Kosovo, have mostly decided to not cast their lot with the nationalists again.

Since Serbia is a Christian country, it seems to me that it won’t take long before Serbia truly joins the European Union (unlike say, o, well, Turkey): ‘The European Union will sign a pact on closer ties with Serbia on Tuesday, a spokesman for EU president Slovenia said.’ (more…)

The New York Times reports that nationalist hooligans “may have been behind the torching of the United States Embassy here, but the feelings of anger, sorrow and betrayal over the loss of Kosovo cut across all segments of Serbian society.” (more…)

One of the main reasons that I was hesitant to speak out positively about Kosovo’s independence is that I was afraid that many other separatist movements would follow Kosovo’s example and be encouraged by it. It seems that I’m far from the only one who fears this and it seems that I may have been right: (more…)

Reuters reports that ‘Serbia rallied its people on Thursday for a mass protest against Kosovo’s declaration of independence to show the world its anger at the loss of its religious heartland. Organizers expect hundreds of thousands to attend the “People’s Rally” in the Serbian capital Belgrade, in what would be the biggest demonstration since half a million filled the streets in 2000 to oust nationalist autocrat