Archived Articles

Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

Global Real Estate Project
News Index

Directories
  Int'l Realty
  US Realty

Serbia put a nationalist candidate in leading position before the second and final ballot for the presidential office of this Balkan country. A candidate from a party, which leader is currently standing international trial accused of war crimes, may become the next head of state in Serbia, a country that up to recently had some chances of becoming EU member in not so distant future. This will be a big disappointment for Brussels (both for the EU and for NATO), and will also mark the limits of the western influence in the Balkan affairs, as well as the return into the region of Russia and its traditional 'divide and conquer' policy. The recent trends in this country, however, won't surprise our readers. A year ago we made a prediction regarding possible backslides of Serbia toward its dark past and two months ago we warned about imminent in the region destabilization in the region.

To a general surprise, for those who haven't turned on their radios to international news recently, the population of Serbia has decided to vote for the ultra-nationalist candidate Tomislav Nikolic for the presidency. Not quite sufficiently in order to elect him from the first ballot, but nevertheless, with a substantial margin over his nationalist but somehow more moderate incumbent Boris Tadic. This move, however, isn't so surprising given the current situation around the autonomous region of Kosovo, nominally still part of Serbia, but in fact under military and political dominion of the West since 1999. This was a war that I personally supported, as a way to eliminate the threat of new ethnic cleansing on a massive scale perpetuated by Milosevic and his clique, not as a prelude to an endless foreign military presence in the Balkans.

Kosovo marks the final frontier of the EU influence in the Balkans, when the promise for future membership acts as a bargain ship for all kinds of demands, and let's face it, for all kinds of conditionality. No country from the region, already a EU member or in a process of becoming a member, was speared the bitter medication of Western conditionality. Some had to close down entire industries, to deprive themselves of energy independence, or simply to destroy the national sovereignty in one field or another. As far as the conditions remained purely economic, the EU had little to worry about the eventual backlash. The new EU members, Romania and Bulgaria, are already trying to eliminate some of the most intolerable conditions imposed as a condition for entry into the club.

Serbia and the issue of Kosovo is a quite different situation. In this particular case, giving independence cannot be reversed within the norms of the international law. Unless Belgrade gives its formal acknowledgement, Kosovo will remain its province. And unless most countries in the world are affected by sudden political blindness, they won't support any unilateral detachment of this province from Serbia, because of the precedent that this may cerate elsewhere. The biggest disappointment goes to Brussels, where Euro-bureaucrats still don't realize that even in 2008 the power politics is an issue for most countries far more important than economy.

Countries are ready under some circumstances to make economic sacrifices, but only in extreme case they are ready to give up territories. It may sound anachronism in our days, but issues like national prestige and national security still get more votes than better economy. Unless we take into account this, events like territorial disputes in no man's lands around the world will make no sense at all. At the end, the European Union integration is based on the fact that the countries have no territorial conflicts with each other. It isn't that they don't have such problems because they live in one confederation; on the contrary, they've opted to live together because they don't have major security problems.

So, Serbia is on the way of becoming the first country that will say 'no' to the European Union for security and not for economic reasons, like Norway or Switzerland. But this won't change the situation on the Balkans, where Serbia is still among the important players. More than that, it can allow Russia to become again a regional player too. After investing too much into Kosovo as a separate entity from Serbia, Brussels won't reverse its policy in the region, which is through conditionality to membership. And this means more regional instability to come.

--------------------

See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Serbia.