Yet another collective sigh of relief

Parliamentary elections were held in Serbia this past weekend. Though predictions were in flux, paralleling the opinion polls of Serbian voters, President Boris Tadic's pro-Western coalition won, though not enough to command a majority in the parliament. Tadic, whose party is, in itself, a coalition, will have to forge a coalition with other parties in order to govern.

It is not impossible: one need only look back to Slovakia following its September 1998 election, in which another "coalition of the coalition" had enough clout to nudge autocratic Premier Vladimir Meciar out of power, even though his party commanded the largest bloc of voters. The Slovak arrangement survived because of the sheer will of its politicians and voters, who were implicitly promised better diplomacy and relations with the EU and NATO.

The latter two appear to be using this same reasoning with the Serbs, though it is hard to tell what the willpower aspect of the electorate looks like. The Radical Party, though suffering an electoral defeat, could theoretically muster enough coalition partners to run a government, and it does have its support base from disgruntled people incensed by Kosovo's independence and the slow pace of economic reforms.

This weekend's election is, perhaps, the dark underbelly to having proportional representation: while it fosters more political pluralism and participation, it also creates the danger of perpetual deadlock and a whole host of deja-vu's the day after elections.

Problematic, yes...but not as problematic as was Slobodan Milosevic, whose ghost still haunts the region.