Seselj says Radicals to begin rallies in spring to topple Serbian government

Belgrade, 25 January 2015 (MIA) - War crimes indictee and Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj said at a party rally in Cacak on Saturday that the SRS would launch protest rallies against the Serbian government as of spring.

"This government won't last much longer because it is breaking at the seams, so we expect elections by the end of the year," Seselj said.

He said President Tomislav Nikolic and Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic were "past their expiration date... as seen in statements by Western diplomats and the writing of foreign media," Hina news agency reported.

He said Nikolic and Vucic were under pressure over the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.

Tanjug news agency reported that Seselj criticised the government's economic policy. He offered cooperation to "patriotic parties" and post-election coalitions with all those "who oppose Serbia's accession to the European Union." He said "Serbia's future is in tighter ties with Russia."

Seslj was provisionally released by the Hague war crimes tribunal for the ex-Yugoslavia last October on health grounds, reiterating at the Cacak rally that he would not go back voluntarily.

Upon returning to Belgrade in October, he made a series of disturbing statements, including one that he had not scrapped Greater Serbia plans, which prompted the adoption of resolutions in the Croatian and European Parliaments asking the Serbian government to distance itself from Seselj's rhetoric, which Belgrade has failed to do officially.

The SRS won 2.1 percent of the vote in an extraordinary parliamentary election in March 2014, failing to cross the electoral threshold.