By Xinhua
Belgrade : Serbian President Boris Tadic on Thursday dissolved the parliament and called early parliamentary elections for May 11 according to the suggestion of the government.
The president issued a decree by which he dissolved the parliament and at the same time called elections, which will be held on the day of the already called provincial and local elections, Tadic’s office said.
The dissolution of the parliament is mainly due to Tadic’s rift with nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica over Kosovo’s independence and Serbia’s integration in the European Union.
“Elections are a democratic way for the citizens to determine how Serbia should develop in the years to come,” Tadic said in a statement.
He said that the elections are a “new chance to strengthen … the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, to strengthen our economic perspective through European integration … and change things for the better.”
Tadic called on all the participants to make effort that this campaign be fair and that it be carried out in a peaceful and democratic atmosphere “so that Serbia could get stable institutions which, in the years to come, will work efficiently for the benefit of all the people of Serbia.”
On Saturday, Kostunica said his government could not function because it no longer had a common and joint policy.
Angered by many EU countries’ recognition of Kosovo independence, Kostunica threatened to stop Serbia’s process of integration into the European Union until the 27-member bloc rejects Kosovo’s independence.
But President Tadic insists Belgrade has no alternative than to try to join the bloc as soon as possible, despite disagreements over Kosovo.
The Serbian government suggested on Monday to President Tadic to dissolve the parliament and to call early parliamentary elections for May 11, the day when previously scheduled provincial and local elections will take place.
The government explained in the proposal that the reason for such a demand was that the body no longer had a joint policy, which made it impossible for it to define and lead the policy of Serbia.
The parliament’s dissolution takes place less than a month after Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority unilaterally proclaimed its independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, despite strong opposition from Belgrade which considers the territory its historic and cultural heartland.
The government, headed by Kostunica, was elected on May 15, 2007, after parliamentary elections was held on Jan. 21. It is composed of Tadic’s pro-West Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of Serbia headed by Kostunica, the New Serbia and the pro-market G17 Plus party.