Radical Presidential Candidate Rejects Idea Serbia to Join EU Without Kosovo

Text of report by Austrian newspaper Die Presse on 18 January

[Interview with presidential candidate Tomislav Nikolic, deputy leader of the Serbian Radical Party, by Thomas Roser; place and date not given: "Noboday Has Ever Invited Me to Austria"]

[Roser] You want to become Serbia’s next president. However, as a nationalist you have a very bad image in the West. Would that be an obstacle for you if you became head of state?

[Nikolic] I know that my reputation there is bad. That is why I am standing for president here and not in Western Europe, because there I would lose the election. In my place others like to talk a lot about me, but I do not get a chance to speak myself. Nobody has ever invited me to Austria. So I could not explain my positions there. In Western European countries people keep themselves informed about me only through my opponents. How could I have a good reputation there?

[Roser] Your opponents are warning for example that Serbia would again be in danger of isolation if you were elected.

[Nikolic] Does [Serbian President] Boris Tadic say that? How could Serbia become isolated with all that Western capital that has been invested here? Do you think they would just leave Serbia and leave their money behind? How could Serbia ever become isolated if it is collaborating closely with countries such as Russia, China, India, Belarus, Ukraine, with Africa, Asia, and South America? Is this isolation? Why should I want to isolate Serbia? Not even Tadic can accept Kosovo’s surrender, which is what the EU demands. But he will be relieved of his duties after the election anyway.

[Roser] With you as president, how will Serbia’s relations with its neighbours be, for example with Croatia?

[Nikolic] Relations with Croatia will be put on ice as long as Serbs cannot return to their houses there. I do not understand how you in the West can tolerate that people were deported 12 years ago and have not yet been able to return home.

[Roser] Can you at all imagine that Serbia might become an EU member one day?

[Nikolic] Only under certain conditions – and of course not under humiliating conditions and without our territory. If the EU told me tomorrow that Kosovo must not become independent, I would let Serbia become an EU member. But the EU has been calling for Kosovo’s surrender; they are making demands to which we cannot agree.

[Roser] How do you see Kosovo’s and Serbia’s future?

[Nikolic] Kosovo is to remain a part of Serbia. We have the United Nations’ full support. We will get into trouble with the declaration of independence and its recognition. However, this will be a long-term process. First of all, we will have to make sure that the Serbian citizens in Kosovo are safe during this period.

[Roser] What exactly is going to happen when the Albanian Kosovars declare independence?

[Nikolic] They have already done that twice. Now they are trying to do it a third time. Even though this goes against the UN resolution, they are supported by the United States and other Western countries. However, Western civilization will have to face the question of why it is doing that. All we can do is to turn towards those countries for economic relations that support us and do not require us to surrender Kosovo. The EU is making demands that we will never meet.

Originally published by Die Presse, Vienna, in German 18 Jan 08, p9.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.