Pro-West Tadic Wins in Serbia

Loser Nikolic warns EU not to blackmail Serbia over integration
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 3, 2008 5:05 PM CST
Pro-West Tadic Wins in Serbia
An ethnic Serb woman casts her ballot in presidential elections in the Serb enclave of Gracanica , Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008. Serbs in Kosovo cast ballots Sunday in a presidential vote they hope will curb majority ethnic Albanian's quest for independence and revert the province to Serbia's rule. The voters...   (Associated Press)

Pro-West Serbian President Boris Tadic won a second-round reelection today that many saw as a referendum on Serbia’s entry into the European Union. He nabbed more than 50% of a vote that drew Serbia's highest turnout in 7 years. In defeat, challenger Tomislav Nikolic warned the EU not to blackmail Serbia over integration. Nikolic ran as a nationalist, urging tight relations with Moscow.

Serbia's president plays a largely symbolic role, but is the military's commander in chief and carries symbolic weight, a BBC analyst explains. Though pro-Western, Tadic still opposes US and EU support for Kosovo's independence. Kosovo intends to break away from Serbia in the coming weeks. (More Serbia stories.)

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