SERBIA: KOSTUNICA'S CAMPAIGN: ALL KOSOVO, ALL THE TIME

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000273 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KPAO PBTS PGOV PHUM PINR PREL KV SR SUBJECT: SERBIA: KOSTUNICA'S CAMPAIGN: ALL KOSOVO, ALL THE TIME REF: BELGRADE 1450 (2007) BELGRADE 00000273 001.2 OF 002 SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Prime Minister Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia will try to keep national attention on Kosovo, rather than European integration, as part of its electoral strategy for Serbia's May 11 elections. The DSS campaign will seize on and prolong stories of unrest in Kosovo, such as the March 17 clashes in Mitrovica, to drown out rivals' messages and portray them as unpatriotic and weak, while staying ahead of the Radicals on Kosovo to avoid being absorbed by the much larger, hard-line party. End Summary. FRAMING THE DEBATE -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Prime Minister Kostunica clearly stated his reasons for calling for the DS-DSS government's dissolution was because he did not feel it was united on Kosovo. His Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) has continued with this message into the pre-election campaign, asserting that the struggle to oppose Kosovo independence is the country's top priority. Conversely, Kostunica told the DSS executive board on March 18, the Democratic Party (DS) bloc is a coalition of "weak politics and big propaganda" that cannot deliver on its promise of EU integration. Kostunica accused Tadic's coalition of "publicly saying that Kosovo is independent" and "turning away" from Kosovo. Former DS Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic told the Ambassador on March 18 that the DSS has succeeded in "setting the political agenda" framing Kosovo as "injustice" despite Kosovo independence having been "clear" for five years. ¶3. (SBU) Kostunica has repeated the argument that prompted the collapse of the DS-DSS governing coalition, that Serbia must not join the EU while the EU intends to deploy its mission to Kosovo. The Prime Minister told DSS leaders that the party's top priority was "the struggle for Kosovo and Metohija and Serbia's integral territory," with EU membership secondary and even then only with Kosovo as a part of Serbia. Leon Kojen, a former GOS Kosovo negotiator alongside Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardzic (DSS),told poloff on March 20 that Kostunica had successfully made EU integration and Kosovo "two sides of the same coin," limiting the DS's ability to make a strong pro-EU argument during the campaign without being forced to discuss Kosovo. ¶4. (SBU) Kostunica has dismissed the DS coalition "propaganda" that a DSS and/or Radical (SRS) victory would result in isolation. Kostunica told Serbian daily Politika on March 17 that the DS campaign was "equal to the worst kinds of propaganda carried out by totalitarian regimes." Kostunica said "the time of sanctions towards Serbia is in the distant past which will never repeat itself" and any allusion to such isolation is an example of his opponents "attempting to introduce fear" into the electorate. ¶5. (SBU) The DSS has seized on recent unrest in Mitrovica and the Presidential authorization to provide defense materiel to Kosovo as part of its electoral campaign. Upon his return from Kosovo, Samardzic told daily Vecernje Novosti on March 20 that he had "strong evidence" including sniper bullets and photographs that "somebody wanted to create a conflict and a state of war in Kosovo" on March 17. Samardzic joined other GOS officials in condemning UNMIK "brutality" and said its operation in Mitrovica was part of a campaign "to create a new Albanian state," and give Serbs "a violent lesson." In another sign of the importance the DSS attaches to Kosovo, Samardzic was unanimously elected to serve as one of seven DSS vice presidents at the party's March 19 meeting. The six other positions were filled in October 2007 (reftel). POLLSTERS: "UDI WAS CPR" BELGRADE 00000273 002.2 OF 002 -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Political observers believe that Kosovo is the only remaining DSS political issue, but the Radicals also gain as tensions increase. Marko Blagojevic, a respected pollster with the Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) told poloff on March 18 that Kosovo independence revitalized the DSS. "Kosovo's UDI gave CPR to a dead DSS heart," Blagojevic said, but perhaps only for the short-term. The DSS risks "losing its identity" if in ultimately forms a coalition with the Radicals, he said. Srbobran Brankovic from the Medium Gallup International polling firm told poloff on March 19 that the DSS's "only topic" was Kosovo. Although disturbances in Kosovo such as the March 17 clashes in Mitrovica kept Kosovo the preeminent political issue in the pre-election campaign, Brankovic thought increasing tensions in Kosovo would more likely benefit Radicals than the DSS. Srdjan Bogosavljevic of Strategic Marketing polling told poloff on March 18 that the DS-New Serbia (NS) coalition may get around 10% of the vote, possibly (again) in a kingmaker role. As with the other pollsters, he said Kosovo was the "only DSS issue" and said that if tension in Kosovo continued the DSS would do well in elections. IT'S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Kostunica realizes that the economy matters to voters, but he hopes he can keep the focus on Kosovo. On March 19, he addressed the Foreign Investment Council (FIC),the main association of international businesses operating in Serbia. According to the press, the FIC director said a "stable business climate" was critical for foreign investors. B92 News reported that Kostunica agreed; stressing the importance of foreign investment and economic development, but still tied the issue of foreign investment to Kosovo. According to his statement, Kostunica told the business representatives that "an increase in foreign investments from all countries can only help [Serbia] protect [its] rights on the international level as guaranteed by the UN Charter." Similarly, in his March 17 Politika interview, Kostunica said that the GOS response to countries which recognized Kosovo has been "political and "does not affect economic ties." ¶8. (SBU) Kojen (who worked closely with both Kostunica and Samardzic during Kosovo negotiations) told poloff on March 20 that the Prime Minister focused solely on political matters and quickly tired of economic discussions, allowing the G17 and DS to manage such issues. Kojen said this was part of the DS-DSS tacit agreement to let Kostunica run Kosovo policy while the DS/G17 were free to handle everything else. Kojen assessed that once it was clear that Kosovo policy encompassed economic issues as well, such as business deals with Moscow, this agreement broke down and hastened the collapse of the coalition. COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The DSS will make full use of their only remaining strategy: casting the election as the struggle for Kosovo between patriots (them) and traitors (the DS). More delicately, they must stay in front of the Radicals to maintain the distinction that, unlike the Radicals, the DSS is able to represent a modern Serbia to the world and negotiate for EU integration once Kosovo is secured. Unrest in Kosovo and uproar over U.S. military assistance to Kosovo help them make their case on Kosovo to the voters, but now two separate Serb manifestations (in Belgrade on February 21 and in Mitrovica on March 17) have spun dangerously out of control. This chaos threatens to undermine the DSS claim that they can both keep Kosovo and lead a modern, stable Serbia. The DSS is playing with fire. End Comment. MUNTER