Croatia Election Result 'Will Affect Ties to Serbia'

A member of the Croatian parliament and leader of the Serbian minority, Milorad Pupovac, said the result in the Croatian presidential elections could have a further negative impact on Croatia-Serbia relations.

Relations between the two countries were already troubled by a number of issues including genocide trials before the International Court of Justice and the early release of the alleged Serbian war criminal Vojislav Seselj from The Hague.

Pupovac said the election of Grabar Kitarovic, who is backed by the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, would not improve matters.

"Relations between Serbia and Croatian certainly will not improve for at least another year," Pupovac said, adding that Grabar Kitarovic was unlikely to change the agenda on which she won the elections.

She would "work against the government in Zagreb and on an anti-regional policy. She will also endeavour to protect the Croats in Serbia, but also to control the process of Serbia's European Union accession," Pupovac predicted.

Grabar Kitarovic's comment that she would work to win better status for Croats "in neighboring countries," including Vojvodina and Serbia, drew criticism in Serbia for allegedly implying that the northern province of Vojvodina was a separate country.

"This is a slip of the tongue, which in other countries would not be possible. This is a lapse that would also not be possible in other parties, but in the HDZ it is," Pupovac added.

Grabar Kitarovic's campaign stressed Croatia's orientation towards Western Europe and the US, making little mention of the western Balkans.

She said Josipovic had take too lenient an approach towards Serbia, warning that she would condition Serbia's progress in its EU path to obtaining more...