Serbian President-elect Tomislav Nikolic told the European Union on Thursday he would “insist” the country stick to its pro-European path, a day before heading to Russia on his first foreign trip since being elected. A former leader of the ultranationalist Radical Party, Nikolic defeated liberal incumbent Boris Tadic on Sunday, triggering speculation the country might abandon the pro-Western course steered by reformists since the overthrow of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. The EU dispatched Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak to Belgrade, where he pressed political leaders to quickly form a new ruling coalition committed to taking Serbia into the EU after an inconclusive parliamentary election on May 6. Nikolic told Lajcak he would “insist particularly on the continuation of Serbia’s European path”, his party said in a statement, as well as the forging of a national consensus on the question of Kosovo, Serbia’s former southern province that Western powers recognize as independent. Asked about Nikolic’s trip to Russia, where he will attend President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party congress on Saturday, Lajcak said the new president’s first official foreign trip after being sworn in next month would be to Brussels. Aides to Nikolic, a former cemetery manager known by the nickname “Gravedigger”, have stressed the Moscow visit had been planned in advance of his shock election victory.
