Ex-Serb Radicals leader tapped to head new EU-friendly party

(BELGRADE) - Serbian nationalist leader Tomislav Nikolic was tapped Tuesday to head moderate Serbian Party for Progress, open to EU integration, after abandoning the ultra-nationalist opposition Radical Party.

Delegates unanimously elected Nikolic to head the party at a congress in Belgrade and chose former secretary general of the Radical party, Aleksandar Vucic, as his deputy, Beta news agency reported.

In an interview with AFP, Nikolic said the new party would be "democratic and modern... with a goal to improve the life of citizens of Serbia."

It would be "of modern political right" which would "advocate cooperation with both the EU and Russia" and "accept both East and West," he said.

While Russia remained "the most popular" country in Serbia, "economic life could not be imagined any more without the European Union members," he said.

"I would like to open the doors (to Serbia) towards the EU," without interrupting "cooperation with Russia," added Nikolic, known as a Russophile.

Many of the delegates, gathered from various Serbian towns, supported the new policy.

"Our society should be ready to join Europe... capable to respond to Europe's expectations. Serbia should satisfy these criteria, but it is not there yet," said a 30-year-old delegate from northern Serbia, who gave her name as Predrag, echoing sentiments expressed by others.

Under 56-year-old Nikolic, the SRS became extremely influential and the strongest single force in parliament since its leader, Vojislav Seselj, surrendered to the Hague-based international warcrimes court in February 2003. He is being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Balkans wars in 1990s.

As acting SRS leader, Nikolic opposed pro-European forces in presidential and parliamentary elections earlier this year. But the SRS split into two factions in September, when Nikolic decided to support ratification of an important accord for Serbia's rapprochement to the EU.

Seselj and his supporters excluded Nikolic and his followers from the party, proclaiming them "traitors."