Serbia’s nationalist party has modernised

The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), a more moderate offshoot of the extreme nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), has eclipsed its parent and stands level in opinion polls with President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party (DS), which dominates the national government. Allied to other legal changes, the SNS and DS now look poised to dominate national politics, creating a two-party system that holds out the prospect of more stable and coherent governments, of either liberal pro-EU or nationalist complexion.

Belgrade and its municipalities have customarily been DS strongholds but municipal elections in the first half of June gave victory in the districts of Zemun and Vozdovac to the SNS, which is led by former SRS presidential candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, who broke with the SRS in October of last year. On July 8th it was reported that the SNS was poised to begin coalition talks in the two districts with the Socialist Party of Serbia, thus bringing an end to DS rule in the district. …