President Boris Tadic on Friday designated the outgoing finance minister Mirko Cvetkovic to head the new Serbian government, with the priority task of reviving the troubled country's ties with the European Union, according to dpa. Cvetkovic, 58, would run a cabinet backed by the coalition of Tadic's pro-European Democratic Party (DS) and the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party (SPS), as well as several ethnic minority representatives. The coalition deal of DS, SPS and minorities representatives was yet to be finalized and signed, which has prolonged the confusion over who would form the ruling coalition since the May 11 snap poll. The law on the government and ministries, which formalizes the make-up of the cabinet, is due in the parliament on Monday and the new prime minister may be promoted later next week. The tight and potentially fragile coalition of DS and SPS was the pro-European alternative of a cabinet headed by the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party and the outgoing premier Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia. Unofficial reports said that the next Serbian government would be large, with between 26 and 28 ministries, in order to satisfy the governing appetites of the new majority partnership. With Cvetkovic's nomination, Tadic went against the wishes of the majority within the DS leadership, local reports said. Most of policy-making Democrats wanted Bojan Pajtic, the premier of the Vojvodina province, to take over in Serbia. Tadic, however, has been running the party with a strong since he took over in 2004, a year after the original leader and prime minister, Zoran Djindjic, was slain. He meanwhile sidelined most of the prominent leaders of the Djindjic era and has promoted young, loyal allies such as another candidate for the premier's office, the outgoing Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. Kostunica's coalition with the Democrats fell apart over his aim to turn Serbia fully away from the West in protest at its support of Kosovo's independence. Kostunica has since become openly hostile to the European Union, though most Serbs hope their country would join in the near future.
