Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic from the Socialist Party of Serbia was elected Wednesday evening as the speaker of the Serbian new parliament.
The election heralds the formation of a new Serbian government more than a month after the May 11 elections.
The election of Djukic-Dejanovic who is the vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) also marks the return to Serbia's political arena of the once shunned party of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic who died while on trial in The Hague war crimes tribunal.
Djukic-Dejanovic, the only candidate for the post, was elected with 128 votes in favor and 97 against. A total of 225 out of 250 MPs took part in the vote.
The votes were clearly divided along the party lines, with the pro-European coalition "For a European Serbia", the coalition gathered around the SPS and the parties representing ethnic minorities upholding the appointment and the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS), the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS),New Serbia (NS) and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) opposed.
The voting came following a day-long debate and after the parliament session was adjourned twice since it convened for the first time on June 11.
This is the result of SPS's decision to form a coalition government with the pro-European bloc gathered around President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS).
The SPS main board on Monday passed a proposal of forming a government with the DS-led coalition with an overwhelming majority of 245 in the 258-member board, party leader Ivica Dacic said.
SPS broke off talks with the coalition of Tomislav Nikolic's SRS and outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's nationalist DSS-NS alliance.
Dacic cited the differences over the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) and a proposed plan to raise pensions as the reason for the collapse of negotiations with the nationalists.
The Socialists want to join the EU while the nationalists, represented by the SRS and DSS, opposed Serbia's further integration with the EU unless the Western nations annulled their recognition of the breakaway Kosovo which unilaterally declared independence on Feb. 17 and has been recognized by some 40 countries, including the United States and most EU member states.
The pro-European bloc, despite its opposition to Kosovo's independence, favors a speedy integration with the EU as it believes an EU membership would strengthen Serbia in the fight to maintain Kosovo.
The move ended six weeks of talks following the May 11 elections that had left neither democrats nor nationalists with a 126-seat majority in the 250-seat parliament to form a new government.
The pro-European coalition "For a European Serbia", headed by Serbian President and DS leader Boris Tadic came first with 102 seats in the elections, while SRS and DSS-NS came second and third, with 78 seats and 30 seats respectively.
They have been vying for the support of SPS which won 20 seats in the new parliament.
Source:Xinhua
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