Belgrade: The United Serbia (JS) leader, Dragan Markovic stated yesterday that the coalition grouped round the SPS will form a governing coalition with the Democratic Party (DS) next week.

While the Associated Party of Pensioners (PUPS) claims that talks with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and Serb Radical Party (SRS) are not over, but Markovic said that the talks have come to a standstill, in fact these talks are finished as far as JS is concerned.

Markovic said, “There’ll be no new elections, a government will be formed next week.” According to the JS leader, the coalition grouped around the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) will assume a common position on forming a parliamentary majority with the DS either today or tomorrow. He said that the coalition’s view was that the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) should not be annulled, and that JS believed it should be ratified.

Markovic stressed, “Since Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) leader Vojislav Koštunica has said that the SAA should be annulled, negotiations with his party are over as far as JS is concerned.”

He argued that the text of the SAA was the same as it was in November 2007, and wondered why DSS experts had not put forward any argument about the harm it could bring to Serbia back then. He reiterated that even before the election, the JS was against recalling ambassadors from countries that had recognized Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence.

He stated that his party believed that Serbia should become a member of the EU, and that Security Council Resolution 1244 provided guarantees that its territorial integrity would be respected. “For us that’s Holy Scripture, and we will not give up on that,” he underlined. He also said that his party did not have any special demands concerning ministerial posts, but that it insisted on further decentralization of power.