VZCZCXRO4180
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0294/01 0851650
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 251650Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0090
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEPGDA/USEUCOM JIC VAIHINGEN GE
RUEHBW/AMEMBASSY BELGRADE 0142

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BELGRADE 000294 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM SR KV
SUBJECT: SERBIA:  VOJVODINA POLITICS -- POOR MAN'S ENTERTAINMENT 
 
REF: BELGRADE 273, BELGRADE 275, 07 BELGRADE 1553 
 
BELGRADE 00000294  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Summary 
 
------- 
 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Two of Vojvodina's most influential political leaders 
portrayed their political ideology as flexible in their efforts 
to secure the most votes and their own political futures.  Novi 
Sad mayor and candidate Maja Gojkovic affirmed she is no longer 
a Radical party member and expressed her future political 
ambitions on the national level.  Nenad Canak, head of the 
League of Vojvodina Social Democrats (LSV) explained that his 
coalition with President and Democratic Party (DS) leader Boris 
Tadic is politically expedient, even though there remain 
differences between them.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
The Break-Up: Gojkovic and the radicals 
 
--------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Novi Sad Mayor Maja Gojkovic told the DCM March 21 she 
had definitively broken away from the Serbian Radical Party 
(SRS).  Though Gojkovic stressed the decision to leave the party 
was hers, the SRS made her choice an easy one.  "No one told me 
I was no longer part of the party," she said, comparing her 
experience to the main character in the 1998 film, "The Truman 
Show", who is unaware he lives in a constructed reality for the 
entertainment of those outside it.  She insisted the split did 
not happen two years ago, as some have speculated, but was more 
recent. 
 
 
 
¶3.  (SBU) In a surprising confession, she told the DCM she would 
not choose an association with the SRS and its leader Vojislav 
Seselj, now on trial for war crimes in The Hague, if she had to 
do it all over again.  As if to prove their falling out, she 
said she had not spoken with Seselj since 2004, when he called 
to tell her he was unhappy with the way she was running her 
mayoral campaign.  "He promised at the time he would call 
'tomorrow.'  That tomorrow never came," she said. 
 
 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Gojkovic was restrained in her comments on Tomislav 
Nikolic.  She said he had worked on sounding more educated 
during his recent run for President, but admitted he had made a 
few mistakes.  When asked whether she thought of a possible 
DSS-SRS coalition following upcoming May elections, she said it 
was possible, but wondered what Nikolic could bring to the table. 
 
 
 
the single life: Citizens Organization of Maja Gojkovic 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) For a woman who admitted to DCM she only reads the 
news when she's the story, it is far from surprising that she 
has named her new citizen group -- which she emphasized was not 
a political party -- the Citizens Organization of Maja Gojkovic 
in Novi Sad.  According to Gojkovic, the group comprises of 
professionals, women, young people, all who are looking for a 
better future, and have not been able to find what they are 
looking for after taking part of various other political 
movements. 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) When asked who her main opponents for mayor of Novi 
Sad would be in May 11 elections, she named President of the 
Novi Sad SRS Igor Mirovic, a "classic Radical," President of the 
Executive Council of Vojvodina Bojan Pajtic (DS), "known in 
Vojvodina, but perhaps lacking ambition," and occasional DSS 
spokesperson Branislav Ristivojevic who is also a key advisor to 
Kostunica.  In response to DCM comment that Canak was also on 
the list, (referencing a March 21 newspaper article), Gojkovic 
said she was not aware Canak was in the running but claimed he 
"is not popular in Novi Sad; not politically anyway." Referring 
to Canak as a comrade, she added that "political parties have 
 
BELGRADE 00000294  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
the same faces.  We need someone new, or people no longer 
believe in them." 
 
 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Gojkovic said all parties had reached out to her as a 
potential ally, chalking it up to the fact that she left the 
Radicals and was "interesting."  In a March 23 interview, she 
told the daily newspaper Blic she was talking with the DS about 
supporting DS during the parliamentary elections in May.  Some 
press outlets are speculating that Gojkovic is trying to parlay 
her potential support for DS during parliamentary elections for 
backing in her re-election bid for mayor. 
 
 
 
Gojkovic: "I will be President of Serbia" 
 
----------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Stridently confident, Gojkovic told the DCM she 
believed she would one day be President of Serbia.  She said she 
was unimpressed by parties on either side of the political 
spectrum.  She claimed Serbia had no political center, but felt 
she could establish it.  She plans to run in 2012, though 
believed she would get the opportunity earlier.  The hallmark of 
a good politician, in her view, was a solid education, charisma 
and popularity.  Although she was unspecific about her source, 
she cited a 62% approval rating nationwide as proof of her 
popularity.  "I could pose for 'Playboy', but that would not be 
politically interesting," she said, quickly adding she had not 
actually been approached by the publication.  Turning serious 
again about her presidential bid, she said "someone has to take 
out the garbage; I'm prepared to do this." 
 
 
 
Canak on GojKovic: A CiTY GiRl With A PAST 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Nenad Canak, head of the League of Vojvodina Social 
Democrats (LSV) told the DCM in a separate meeting March 21 that 
Gojkovic was only special because she looked and acted like a 
"city girl," even though she was a founding member of the 
Radical party and "with them during Srebrenica and Vukovar." 
Canak said there was no corruption with the previous mayor of 
Novi Sad, addressing the DCM's question on alleged corruption 
during the tenure of Borislav Novacovic, Novi Sad's DS mayor 
until 2004.  He added that "the Radicals are the most corrupt 
and the worst abusers of power possible." 
 
 
 
Canak on Tadic: No Angel, but a Good Person 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Hinting that his aspirations are purely national, 
Canak said he had no interest in becoming mayor of Novi Sad. 
While he had no qualms that Tadic had "made his pact with the 
devil, and therefore could not be an angel" Canak said he was 
comfortable with having joined the DS coalition ahead of 
upcoming May 11 elections.  Canak explained a coalition with the 
DS was important in order to secure the greatest number of MPs. 
 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Arguing that the line between democratic and 
nationalist forces in Serbia was not clearly defined, Canak told 
the DCM there were "democratic nationalists and nationalist 
democrats," with Tadic falling into the latter category.  He 
said that even Tadic, who is pro-EU integration, strongly 
supported the "Kosovo is Serbia" line.  By the same token, Canak 
said Tadic had accepted him into the current election coalition, 
knowing that Canak felt Kosovo's outcome was inevitable. 
Responding to the DCM's question on why Tadic failed to show 
leadership and get the Interim Political Agreement signed during 
the critical week in January when the EU had announced its EULEX 
mission to Kosovo, Canak said Tadic's massive support was based 
on the electorate knowing that he would not make quick or 
drastic moves.  Comparing Tadic to the late president Djindjic, 
 
BELGRADE 00000294  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
Canak claimed Tadic lacked his Machiavellian wisdom, but 
conceded he was a better person and had surrounded himself with 
good advisors, particularly Srdjan Saper and Miodrag Rakic.  As 
an explanation for Tadic's political maneuvering, Canak said 
foreigners need to understand that Serbian politics is not as it 
appears.  "For Serbia politics -- not sex -- is the poor man's 
entertainment." 
 
 
 
Canak and Gojkovic: agreeMENT on Kosovo and serbia in EU 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
 
 
¶12.  (SBU) While Canak and Gojkovic agreed on very little, they 
were like-minded on two things: the future of Kosovo and Serbia 
as part of the EU.  Canak stated throughout the meeting that 
integration with Europe should be a top priority and that the 
outcome of Kosovo was inevitable.  Gojkovic told the DCM if she 
had to choose what was in the best interest of Serbia, it would 
be EU integration.  She warned however that the Kosovo issue was 
still too fresh.  "No one can expect Serbia to get over Kosovo 
so easily," she said.  Signaling a dispassionate rather than 
emotional approach to Kosovo, she claimed she thought of Kosovo 
with her brain, not her heart.  In a March 23 interview with 
Blic, she said "the issue of Kosovo and Metohia can only be 
solved with Serbia entering Euro-Atlantic integration.  Serbia 
can most help Serbs and non-Albanians as a member of the EU." 
Gojkovic conceded, when pressed, that she would cooperate with 
the ICTY, so long as it was in Serbia's best interest, and that 
joining the EU was in Serbia's interest.  She wondered aloud, 
however, why Serbia was responsible for producing alleged war 
criminals that might not even be on Serbian soil, referring to 
Mladic and Karadzic. 
 
 
 
COMMENT 
 
------- 
 
 
 
¶13.  (SBU) While clearly confident in herself and her own 
charisma, Gojkovic still remains an unknown political quantity, 
and appears willing to be politically elastic to advance her own 
ambitions.  The question is whether she will be able to deliver 
on her wider political aspirations and agenda.  On the opposite 
side of the political spectrum, Canak possesses a similar degree 
of political flexibility, as his current coalition with Tadic 
suggests.  Both leaders prove that Serbian politics is less 
about defining yourself and more about defining your 
adversaries.  End Comment. 
MUNTER