Mirko Cvetkovic of the Democratic Party (DS), who was finance minister in the previous Serbian government, has been named the next prime minister of Serbia by president Boris Tadic, Serbian media reported late on June 27 2008.

Cvetkovic’s main rival for the prime minister post, reports over the past week claimed, was outgoing foreign minister Vuk Jeremic.

Cvetkovic has a PhD from the University of Belgrade’s faculty of economics and has worked as an economist at a number of Serbian institutions, as well as on various projects for the World Bank.

His nomination comes following seven weeks of difficult coalition talks between Serbia’s main political parties after the May 11 snap parliamentary elections. The elections were won by the pro-European coalition headed by Tadic’s DS, which, however, did not manage to gather enough seats to form a majority.

The nationalist bloc, made up after the polls by the Serbian Radical Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia–New Serbia coalition, led by outgoing prime minister Vojislav Kostunica, also fell short of the number of parliament seats to come up with a government of its own.

The Socialist Party of Serbia emerged, therefore, as the kingmaker of the future cabinet. It initially started talks with the nationalists, but they failed, which made the Socialists turn to the Democrats.

Latest reports claim Serbia’s new cabinet may well be formed next week, as negotiations between the Socialists and the pro-Europeans are in their final stages.