The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) said on July 13 that it was withdrawing from a coalition government deal with the opposition Radicals and nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) in the city of Belgrade. The move raises the possibility of new elections in the city.

On July 7, a national coalition government was formed in Serbia, headed by prime minister Mirko Cvetkovic and made up of president Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party-led For a European Serbia coalition, the SPS and some ethnic minority parties.

The formation of this government was the catalyst that imperiled the Belgrade coalition deal struck a few weeks after the May 11 general and municipal elections but some time before the national coalition deal was agreed on.

The SPS was the party of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and had spent years politically becalmed before emerging as a kingmaker after the May 11 2008 elections.

Serbian media reported that Tadic had told the SPS that he would end the coalition with them if they did not withdraw from the Belgrade power-sharing agreement with former prime minister Vojislav Kostunica’s DSS and the hardline Radical party.

At a news conference on July 13, SPS leader Ivica Dacic said that the party had to withdraw from the Belgrade deal because it could have “jeopardised the survival of Serbia’s government”. Dacic said that new elections could not be ruled out.

Serbian media reported that Dacic told the news conference that the SPS would not be willing to form a government in the city of Belgrade with the European Liberal Democratic Party, which does not oppose Kosovo’s February 17 2008 unilateral declaration of independence.

“In the next couple of days it will be clear whether any sort of a deal is possible or if we’re going to have new elections in Belgrade,” he said.