Halfway down the Danube

Serbia, cont'd

Some people were paying attention to the New Hampshire primary yesterday. Others were watching London, where Tony Blair's government narrowly survived a challenge in Parliament, winning by just five votes.

But a few of us were looking to Belgrade, where the newly elected Serbian Parliament was trying to form a government.

Trying without success, I must add. They weren't able to agree on that or anything else... in fact, they couldn't even choose a Speaker Pro Tem; the job ended up defaulting to the oldest legislator present. (Yes, really.)

The problem is, the non-evil parties can't form a government unless all of them agree; and the Democratic Party won't agree unless it gets something; and nobody wants to give the Democrats anything, at all, because they were the previous ruling party and have become the scapegoats for everything that's gone wrong in Serbia in the last three and a half years.

So, much yelling and finger-pointing, but no government.

A surrealist touch: while most parliamentarians showed up in suits and ties (or the feminine equivalent thereof), all 81 members of the Serbian Radical Party showed up wearing t-shirts. Identical t-shirts, all bearing the image of Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, who is presently imprisoned at the Hague awaiting trial for war crimes.

Posted by douglas at January 28, 2004 04:01 PM