The Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic won
the Serbia’s presidential election on 20 May 2012. Nikolic beat his
centrist opponent, the incumbent Boris Tadic in a closely contested
election. Nikolic accounted for 50.21% of the total vote, against 46.77%
for Tadic, with 40% of votes counted.
Nikolic, during his previous stints in power worked as a deputy prime
minister under the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who
was put on trial for genocide at The Hague. He was also the part of the
government when Nato forces attacked Serbia in 1999. Nikolic, an
ultra-nationalist, has widely been considered as anti-European Union
given his vocal opposition of the bloc. He, however, in a bid to
recapture the power toned down his antipathy towards the European Union
and vowed to not deviate from its European path, after winning the
elections.
Serbia, located at the intersections between Central
and Southern Europe, became a separate sovereign republic in summer 2006
after Montenegro voted in a referendum for independence from the Union
of Serbia and Montenegro. The country has its unemployment rate
spiraling high at 24%. The total foreign debt of the country is also
piling up as the current figure stands at 24 billion euro.
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