So it looks like they have done it after all. In a move many hail as some kind of victory, DS and SPS have agreed to alienate both their supporters and form a government together. Word is that the prime minister will be the current finance minster Mirko Cvetković, a compromise figure in every respect. As a "nonparty" person, he is more or less acceptable to everyone. As a nonentity, everyone believes they can control him. He may surprise people on that second count.
The new government is set to have 28 ministries, affirming the place of Serbia near the top of the world demographically in ministers per capita.
The good news about the government is that neither Vojislav Koštunica nor Velimir Ilić will be part of it. The bad news is that SPS will be, and once again a party with minor support will excercise inordinate power. What is uncertain is whether SPS will use the opportunity to demonstrate that it has the capacity the become a political party, and also whether DS will use the opportunity to demonstrate that it has the capacity the become a political party.
PS: Backstory? -- Here are journalists speculating in Politika that Tadić was compelled to choose Cvetković by party leaders and that his preference would have been .... Vuk Jeremić????? But how little does one have to respect (even) Tadić to imagine anyone, even him, seeing Vuk Jeremić in any position where something might depend on him?
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4 comments:
A few comments:
It's not surprising that Tadic would push for Jeremic, he was his adviser, I feel they have a close relationship and it seems that Jeremic is totally loyal and obedient to Tadic. Which brings me to my second point, and that is that this is definitely a move by Tadic to consolidate his power. Not bad if only for the fact that it will finally allow us to see what Tadic will do when given room to make decisions realtively unhampered, or at leat without direct competition. Keeping my exepcations low, waaaayyyy low that it will be anything particularly brilliant or even creative...
Finally, SPS is still better than DSS. They are not nearly as ideologically rigid. Really, what I think is that they want to become a relevant political actor once again, and even change their behaviour, just as long as they don't have to admit to or be held responsible for the disaster their party was responsible for. Kind of a "let bygones be bygones and we'll listen to you" approach... Tadic's whole "nacionalno pomirenje" drivel seems just the kind of accommodation to give them this opportunity.
I also have the feeling that SPS is better than DSS, though every time this feeling comes to me I begin to wonder why it is that the word "good" has no meaning.
Another thing which I forgot to mention above is the fact that Djelic is, to say the least, taking a back seat. If competence were the criteria, Djelic would have been PM. Whatever little success the last government had (SAA, visa liberalisation, etc.) are all pretty much his work. Again, I think this is, to put it diplomatically, a power consolidation initiative by Tadic. Maybe not be such a bad thing... it will leave far less room for excuses on his part.
There will also be limits to Tadic's power: Dacic at interior, and the atrocious Mrkonjic at infrastructure. Maybe it is an effort to hand over the corruption to SPS, in exchange for DS "governing"?
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