BELGRADE (Reuters) – The Socialist Party of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic held the key to power in Serbia on Monday after tied elections in which voters angry about the country’s economic woes roundly punished the ruling Democratic Party.

The Democrats, part of a reformist bloc that turned Serbia westwards with Milosevic’s ouster in 2000, saw their support crumble to 23 percent from 38 percent in 2008, hurt by an economic downturn that has left a quarter of the Serbian workforce jobless.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Opposition populists once allied with Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic pushed for power on Sunday, buoyed by voter anger over the state of the economy and pledging support for the ex-Yugoslav republic’s bid to join the European Union.

Liberals who took power with Milosevic’s ouster in 2000 face their strongest challenge yet from the Serbian Progressive Party led by Tomislav Nikolic, once demonized by the West as Milosevic’s spiritual heir but who says he now shares the goal of taking Serbia into the EU.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbia’s right-wing opposition vied for power on Sunday in knife-edge elections marked by an unprecedented pro-European consensus more than a decade since the fall of nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Liberals who took power in 2000 face their strongest challenge yet from the opposition led by Tomislav Nikolic, once demonized by the West as Milosevic’s spiritual heir but who says he now shares the goal of taking Serbia into the European Union.

LESKOVAC, Serbia (Reuters) – The Zele Velkovic factory in Leskovac, once famous for its thriving textile industry, was one of the city’s biggest when Yugoslavia started to implode in 1991.

The next two decades brought a slow decline fueled by chronic mismanagement and a dramatic loss of competitiveness. Where more than 600 worked, now just 70 walk the factory’s cavernous halls, the deafening hammering of its old industrial looms barely disguising the emptiness.

KRAGUJEVAC, Serbia, April 16 (Reuters) – Italy’s Fiat
on Monday unveiled its new 1-billion-euro production
line in the Serbian industrial town of Kragujevac, where the
carmaker’s 500L model will be produced for sale by late 2012.

The opening reprsents a much needed campaign boost for
President Boris Tadic’s Democratic Party, the largest party in
Serbia’s ruling coalition, ahead of presidential and
parliamentary elections on May 6.

BELGRADE, April 12 (Reuters) – Serbia sought potential
strategic partners on Thursday to help run the country’s sole
key steel mill, which is straining the government’s budget with
less than a month to go before parliamentary and presidential
elections.

Serbia, which is struggling to attract investors to boost
growth and combat unemployment of almost 27 percent, bought back
the underperforming steel plant in the central city of Smederevo
from U.S. Steel last December for a nominal $1.

BELGRADE, April 6 (Reuters) – Serbia’s central bank
intervened in currency markets three times on Friday in order to
slow the dinar’s decline against the euro after the
domestic currency fell to 112.05, its lowest level in weeks,
dealers and traders said.

“The central bank is injecting liquidity into the market and
interventions started after the dinar fell to 111.85 to one
euro,” said a dealer, forecasting the dinar would weaken
further.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Wednesday he was resigning 10 months early, setting up a showdown with opposition populists in parliamentary and presidential elections next month as the Balkan country eyes talks on joining the European Union.

Tadic’s resignation, which he will formally submit on Thursday, clears the way for joint elections on May 6, a move Tadic said was vital if Serbia was to prevent reforms at the heart of its EU membership bid from being derailed.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Wednesday he was resigning 10 months before the end of his mandate, clearing the way for joint parliamentary and presidential elections in May when he will seek a new five-year term.

Analysts say Tadic’s Democratic Party is banking on the president’s personal popularity to boost the party’s vote in the parliamentary election already set for May 6.

MALI POZAREVAC, Serbia (Reuters) – Left without the use of both legs after a car struck him in 1996, Mile Stojkoski turned to sport as his rehabilitation — table-tennis, target-shooting, kayaking, gymnastics, swimming.

But the former administrative clerk’s signature discipline became his long-distance wheelchair “marathons” which he undertakes to raise awareness about the plight of disabled people in the Balkans, where they are marginalized and often stigmatized.