Election time 选举时刻
Mar 13th 2008
From The Economist print edition
Translation jerrywhitt
The government quits, paving the way for an early election
塞尔维亚政府倒台，这也为一个早期选举铺平了道路
AP-Kostunica, contemplating uncertainty
美联社供图-科斯图尼卡，沉思着所面临的世事无常
AS PREDICTED, Serbia's government has collapsed. A general election is to be held on May 11th. The big issues before it, says Vojislav Kostunica, the outgoing prime minister, will be Europe and the future of Kosovo. He argues that Serbia should continue on the path of European integration only if the EU accepts that Kosovo is part of Serbia. President Boris Tadic retorts that only by keeping on track towards Europe can Serbia actively undermine Kosovo's attempts to win full acceptance as an independent country.
如预料那样，塞尔维亚的政府已经崩溃。一次全国大选将在2008年5月11日举行。出局的总理沃吉斯拉夫?科斯图尼卡讲道，如今所要面临的一些大难题将是欧洲事务与科索沃的未来。他主张，塞尔维亚应该继续申请加入欧共体，但前提是欧洲国家要接受科索沃是塞尔维亚的一部分。塞尔维亚总统波利斯?塔迪克反驳道，塞尔维亚只有不断地向欧洲靠拢，才能够在挫败科索沃企图赢得别国对其国家独立的完全承认的种种努力。
Kosovo has a population of some 2m, 90% of whom are ethnic Albanians. On February 17th it declared independence and was promptly recognized by America and most European countries. The EU is sending a big mission to help run the new country. But the independence of its former province has been denounced as illegal by Serbia and its ally, Russia.
科索沃总人口2百万，90%都是巴尔干民族。2008年2月17日，科索沃宣布了其国家独立，并立刻得到了美国与一些欧洲国家的承认。欧盟也派遣了一个大的使团以帮助这个新立国家的运营。但是塞尔维亚这个前省份的独立受到塞尔维亚与其盟友俄罗斯的公然指责，称其行为实属不合法。
Serbia held a general election a year ago and a presidential election last month. Because of this political turmoil, foreign investment is beginning to dry up. In effect, Serbia is losing time. For years the largest party has been the Radicals, whose founder is on trial in The Hague for war crimes. It is quite possible that, after the election, it will enter government for the first time since 2000, in coalition with Mr Kostunica.
塞尔维亚在一年前举行了一次全国大选，又在上个月举行了一次总统大选。然而由于这次的政治骚乱，外国投资也出现紧张。这样一来，塞尔维亚也就在丢失良机。多年来，塞尔维亚最大的党派是激进党，该党派的奠基人因战争罪行而在海牙国际刑事法庭接受审判。而在选举之后，激进党非常有可能自2000年后初次进驻国家政府，与科斯图尼卡先生组建联合政府
In the past such a prospect would have led to panic among EU leaders. But now the mood is changing. Meeting to discuss the situation in Brussels this week, a number of ministers and senior officials shrugged on news of the election. Olli Rehn, the enlargement commissioner, says that, in the polls, “Serbia will either turn to its European future or risk self-imposed isolation.” Ask people in Brussels if there is a Plan B should Serbia opt for what Mr Rehn calls the “road to nowhere” and it seems as if the answer is no.
在过去，这种展望在欧盟领导人中肯定就已经引发了恐慌。但是现在，这种情绪正在改变。在本周布鲁塞尔商谈该事态发展的会议上，一些国家部长与高级官员却对塞尔维亚选举的消息不以为然。欧盟扩展部委员长欧利?雷恩讲道，民意调查表明，“塞尔维亚要么就走欧洲之路，要么就自生自灭。”在布鲁塞尔，针对雷恩先生说的“无处可走”的情形，当问及是否有B计划让塞尔维亚选择时，似乎答案也是否认的。
But dig deeper and officials are talking of “contingency planning”. What this means in practice is extra help for Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Albania, in case Serbia opts out of the EU. EU assistance to people in the western Balkans is already the highest per head in the world. All sorts of programmes, many dull but worthy, are being developed.
深资分析人士与官员们也在谈论“偶发事件的计划”。实际上它的意思是为门的内哥罗、马其顿王国、波斯尼亚与阿尔巴尼亚提供额外的帮助，以免塞尔维亚决定不加入欧盟组织。欧盟对巴尔干西部人民的援助在全世界已经是最大的。所有类型的援助项目都在研究之中，尽管其中许多项目没有新意，但却非常有价值。
Recently a Serbian envoy told his Western colleagues that the best way to help pro-European Serbs was to make sure that the rest of the region made no progress towards Brussels so long as Serbia's bid was stalled. He was told that if he expected the EU to do that, he needed to take a check on the realities of the world. Dimitrij Rupelj, foreign minister of Slovenia, holder of the current EU presidency, knows more than most how much has been done to help Serbia and its democrats in the past few years. Now he says that “if there is no agreement with our Serbian friends, the train will move on and they will be left lagging ever further behind.”
最近，一个塞尔维亚特使告诉他的西方同僚，说要帮助亲欧塞尔维亚人的最好方式是，只要塞尔维亚的内政事务没有处理完毕，那么该国的其它地区就不能接近欧盟。然而，这位特使得知，如果他期待欧盟反客为主，那他就需要先看看世界事态的变化，然后再做出决定。斯洛文尼亚的外交部长（同样也是欧盟主席）最清楚在过去的数年里帮助塞尔维亚以及其民主人士所给予的援助。如今，他讲道，“如果与我们的塞尔维亚朋友达不成协议的话，那塞尔维亚只会一意孤行并远远地被抛在后面。”