An Image of Seselj

In his book The Authorities and Opposition in Serbia, Ognjen Pribicevic devoted a lot of space to the rise and fall of the extreme right. He concluded that the right does not have the right response for a time when the national issue is no longer the central topic in politics and added that there is no guarantee that the right could not return to the political scene "especially if Milosevic needs it".

"The history of SRS-SPS relations is very interesting," he said. "They always rose when the Socialists wanted it. They were strong in 1992 and early 1993 when the Radicals had the job of toppling the democratic opposition and completing shady deals in the war. As soon as that was over, they accused them of fascism and war crimes. Something similar is happening now. Milosevic has used Seselj again but it seems he’s overplayed him this time. For the first time our polls are showing that Seselj is equal to Milosevic in popularity and his party is drawing close to the SPS. This time the Socialists went too far with Seselj. I personally expect them to raise the issue of what the SRS is doing in Zemun if Seselj goes into the second election round. They’ll become the greatest evil among the Serbian people once again. The question is whether that will work again and whether people will decide that Seselj is the lesser of two evils. I know reliably that the Socialists know exactly what is happening based on their own research and are now assessing when the best time to strike is. But, their timing could be off."