Novi Sad Radicals Forfeit Squeaky Clean Image

Six months after the hard-line nationalist Serbian Radical Party, SRS, took over the reins in Novi Sad, ethnic minorities in the Vojvodina region still wonder if they have a long-term future there.

Many seem relieved, however, that the party has put its militant rhetoric behind it, and that there is unlikely to be a return to the dark days of 1990s, when many ethnic Croats and Hungarians were forced to emigrate.

"We are not afraid. Why should we be scared?" asked Erszika, 47, an ethnic Hungarian. "We live well with our neighbours. No one disturbs anyone."

Maja Gojkovic, a senior SRS official, took over as mayor of Novi Sad last October, after beating Borislav Novakovic, her main rival from the moderate Democratic Party, DS, by only about 700 votes.

Erszika works in a café in Telep, a part of Novi Sad where many ethnic Hungarians live and work. In this part of the town, where few voted for the Radicals, ordinary people are reluctant to comment publicly on the change of city government.

Their reluctance to speak out is understandable given memories of events in the Nineties, when the SRS ruled Novi Sad in coalition with Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, SPS.

Then, the Radicals' leader, Vojislav Seselj, now in The Hague facing war crimes charges, published lists of ethnic Croat citizens who were forced to flee Vojvodina.

"A lot of people left for Hungary at the time," Erszika recalled. "Now we're hoping the Radicals have changed. They've promised they won't bother us, and for the time being, this is so."

Unlike Seselj, Mayor Gojkovic told IWPR that she was born and raised among people of different national and religious backgrounds and did not want anyone to feel uncomfortable because she was running the city.

"I'd feel personally responsible if a single Novi Sad resident felt threatened because of his or her religious background, or political affiliations," Gojkovic said.

However, Aleksandar Popov, head of the Novi Sad-based Centre for Regionalism, an NGO that supports regional cooperation and civic society initiatives in the Balkans, said such conciliatory statements have done little to change the broader image of her party.

With the city in Radical hands, Popov said, projects aimed at fostering regional cooperation, such as the twinning of Novi Sad with Osijek in Croatia and Tuzla in Bosnia and Hercegovina, had been jeopardised.

After Gojkovic took over as mayor, her counterpart in Tuzla, Jasmin Imamovic, said he would not cooperate with the Radical authorities in Novi Sad because of the party's warmongering past.

The Radicals did not only win votes on account of their clear nationalist profile. Anti-corruption was a major campaign issue and the SRS pledged to clean up city government and help the police and judiciary punish those guilty of corrupt practices.

"Honestly, in fact!" read many billboards put up by the party during the election campaign.

"My vote went to the Radicals because they promised to crack down on corruption and create jobs for the unemployed,” said Darko, 32. "I voted for Maja because she was ours, a born-and-bred Novi Sad woman from a respectable family of lawyers."

Gojkovic assured IWPR she had lived up to those promises. She had "opened all the doors" after taking office, she said, and had made all the city archives available for investigation (though no one has yet been charged with corruption as a result).

The mayor also pointed with pride to the "demilitarisation" of Novi Sad, a project that was launched after her appointment. This involved the city signing a contract with the defence ministry under which the army has pledged to move out of the Novi Sad area.

Their departure will free up a huge amount of real estate and facilities, some of which lie in very sought-after locations.

According to political analysts, the SRS may have dumped its old policy of provoking conflicts over issues of nationality, but its record on cleaning up city government is less clear-cut.

One area where the Radical party's record is already open to question is political patronage.

Contrary to its campaign promises, as soon as it formed a city assembly majority with the assistance of Milosevic's Socialists and the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, the new ruling coalition began dividing up top managerial posts in public companies and utilities among their members.

Goran Vasic, head of the Novi Sad branch of the DS, told IWPR that the Radicals and their allies quickly began employing their own people in public companies that were already overstaffed, although they had promised not to do so.

"Nepotism and family connections are the driving forces, so the people employed to do these responsible jobs often lack any education and expertise," said Vasic.

Gojkovic rejects these allegations. "These sermons on nepotism and on how the new emloyees lack expertise are opposition political promotion and spin-doctoring," she said.

"The opposition is not even trying to tackle important issues for the benefit of this city," she added. "Losing power was obviously painful and all their complaints stem from grief over what they have lost."

As an example of her party's probity, she cited the resignation of Milos Vucicevic as chair of the board of the Pharmacists'

Institute when his father, Zoran, a Radical, was made speaker of the city assembly. He stepped down, she said, to avoid any charges of nepotism.

The opposition has other complaints.

It insists the city assembly has been illegally constituted because the procedure for doing so was flawed. Four months after complaining to the local authorities, the opposition has yet to receive a response.

It has also protested against what it says are politically motivated sackings and appointments at the local television station, Apolo, which the city finances.

Two journalists were sacked in February for being "technologically surplus", while several others voluntarily quit after Sasa Adamovic, a relatively unknown local journalist, and SRS member, was appointed director.

Gojkovic herself has clashed with the media only two months into her term, exchanging harsh words with the Novi Sad-based regional daily, Dnevnik, now owned by the German media giant WAZ.

In a strong-worded letter addressed to Dnevnik, she accused the daily of conducting a smear campaign against her and of serving the interests of the opposition parties.

Dnevnik dismissed these claims, firing back counter-accusations concerning what they said were Gojkovic's attempts to influence the editorial policy of the media.

Goran Vasic singled out as a particular problem the possible loss of much needed foreign investment in Novi Sad, as a result of the SRS’s poor foreign profile.

He illustrated his point by citing the celebrations marking the Day of the City, on February 1, when almost none of the invited guests from the so-called twin cities turned up.

Dimitrije Boarov, an economic analyst from Novi Sad, also fears foreign investment in the city may dry up while the Radicals are in power.

While the SRS remains opposed to the government's pro-European policy, Europe remains the only place from which potential investors might come, he says.

"Even if the Radicals started changing today their attitude towards Europe, and they haven't done so, Europe wouldn't change its attitude towards them for some time," Boarov told IWPR.

Gojkovic disagrees, saying investors need have no worries about Radicals running the city assembly. "A lot has been done to open up the city towards foreigners," she told IWPR.

She cited frequent visits by foreign delegations and the fact that this year's city budget will focus on investment.

"Of the total budget of 10.6 billion dinars, more than 6 billion will be invested in public utilities and infrastructure," she said.

On the other hand, foreign diplomats clearly remain wary of establishing any public contact with SRS officials.

When Michael Polt, US ambassador to Serbia and Montenegro, visited Novi Sad a few weeks ago, he refused to meet Mayor Gojkovic.

According to the media, the boycott reflected US policy, which is "not to cooperate with political parties that oppose cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal".

Most Novi Sad citizens probably do not side either with the Radicals or with their more moderate opponents. Turnout in the last local election was meagre 35 per cent, which means most voters stayed at home.

Voter abstinence is a consequence of "weak political goods on display", according to Pavel Domonji, of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, pointing to equal disappointment with nationalists and with the so-called democratic bloc.

"They're all the same," was the typical response of one 50-year-old woman, who has lost her job in a state bank. "They've got jobs for their families and friends, while common people have a hard time making ends meet."

Dinko Gruhonjic is the head of the Beta news agency in Novi Sad.