BELGRADE, Serbia — The potential kingmaker in forming the next Serbian government says Russia is pressuring him to hammer out a coalition with nationalists and ditch his alliance with the Democrats, the country's pro-European Union party.
Ivica Dacic, the leader of the Socialists, said Thursday he was under similar pressure four years ago when Washington urged him to join a coalition with the Democrats.
Dacic, the late Serbian autocrat Slobodan Milosevic’s wartime spokesman, says he will not succumb to pressure from either Washington or Moscow when he decides with whom he’ll form the next government.
Neither the Democrats nor the nationalist Serbian Progressive Party won enough votes in Serbia’s parliamentary elections in May and are luring the Socialists to form a coalition government.
