Milosovic supporters may bring down Serb govt

Serbia’s pro-Western government which toppled former President Slobodan Milosevic may fall under the onslaught of nationalists and defectors from the crumbling governing block, the prime minister warned today.

“There is a real possibility that this happens,” Zoran Zivkovic said ahead of a possible vote next Tuesday that could bring down the government,.

“The government may no longer have a majority,” Zivkovic said.

The fall of the pro-democracy government would be a major setback for the US and the West in their attempts to stabilise the Balkans after a decade of wars and bloodshed in former Yugoslavia.

Serbia’s nationalists, most of them supporting Milosevic who is on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, are staunchly anti US and consider the current government a traitor to Serbian interests.

Serbia’s nationalist opposition, which has the control of about 120 seats in the parliament, also accuses the government of corruption and the failure to increase living standards in the three years since the ouster of Milosevic on October 2000.

The opposition may topple the government if it wins support of defectors from the crumbling governing democratic block.

The G-17 Plus party, a former member of the pro-democratic bloc, has announced that at least one of the MPs has joined its ranks and plans to vote against the government next Tuesday.

“We are negotiating with several other deputies to join us,” said G-17 Plus leader Mladjan Dinkic.

Zivkovic, the prime minister, said the “strange” defections from his pro-government coalition may lead to his toppling. He accused G-17 Plus of “buying the government deputies.”

“If this trade becomes successful, I no longer see any meaning, or pleasure, in presiding over the government whose deputies are being purchased for money,” Zivkovic said.

Also at stake during the possible vote in the parliament vote is the seat of Serbia’s acting President Natasa Micic. If she is voted out of the office, her position will be taken by the oldest MP in the parliament – a Milosevic ally.