PANCEVO, Serbia, May 6 (Reuters) - The flea market stretches as far as you can can see, stalls and tarpaulin roofs over crammed displays of goods - some old, some new and some of dubious origin.
There are few price tags, no receipts, just the sound of haggling and the lingering smell of pork grilled in ramshackle stands. This is a mall for those who have missed out in Serbia's uncertain transition towards a market economy.
"I would like things to be the same as when I was young, in the 1970s," says Stanka Velickovic, who sells bicycles in one of the market's main drags. "Everything was better then."
Nostalgia for socialist Yugoslavia and bitterness at the failure of capitalism to deliver for all are the unspoken factors in the May 11 general election, the small print under the banner issue of whether Serbia should turn to West or East.
The nationalist, populist Radicals have a good chance of winning the election, tapping into the discontent of millions raised in the cosy embrace of a socialist state.
Still nominally employed in a state firm, Velickovic hasn't been paid since 2000, when the fall of autocrat Slobodan Milosevic after a decade of war threw Serbia into a stop-go transition and put an end to the sweeteners he handed out.
"My son is sick and can't work, and the state will not help," she says. "That's why I will vote for change, for those who pledge to fight corruption and improve the health system."
The market of Pancevo, a declining town notorious for its industrial pollution, is one of dozens that sprang up in the 1990s when economic collapse and hyperinflation forced many people to sell what they had for food and gas.
Shiny shopping centres have since been built in the booming capital Belgrade, just 25 km (15 miles) to the south, selling expensive foreign clothes and gadgets and featuring novelties such as sushi restaurants, multiplex cinemas and bowling alleys.
But with a third of the population unemployed and average monthly wages just over 350 euros ($542), flea markets are still where most Serbs go to shop, rather than only browse and dream.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT FALLS SHORT
The main contenders in the election are the Radicals, who favour state control of the economy and closer ties with Russia, and a bloc of pro-Western liberal parties that have run Serbia, in various constellations, since the fall of Milosevic.
Analysts say most people are unhappy with how things have developed, their hopes for rapid improvements in salaries and living standards dashed by waves of restructuring and layoffs.
"In underdeveloped and poor regions people perceive themselves as losers of transition and vote for the Radicals," says pollster Marko Blagojevic of the CESID think tank.
Investment after the fall of Milosevic has been more modest than expected: the $13.5 billion of foreign investment so far is respectable compared to poorer neighbours, but short of forecasts for ex-Yugoslavia's most populous state.
Many foreign firms are still watching on the sidelines, wary of instability and halting progress towards the European Union, largely due to lingering nationalism.
The most recent flare up was in February over the Western-backed secession of Kosovo province, which sparked often violent protests and attacks on foreign embassies and firms.
One casualty was the town of Bor, home to a debt-ridden mining complex that successive governments have tried to put on the block: the Austrian firm due to buy it pulled out, saying it had trouble raising funds due to the instability.
Former miner Milko, now a pensioner whose 10,000 dinar (120 euro) pension pays for a whole family, longs for a rosier past.
"When the state controlled everything, we had the greatest prosperity," he says. "The company even paid for our holidays."
GOOD TIMES FOR SOME
Officials in the outgoing government, a coalition of liberals and nationalists that split over Kosovo, have said the Bor complex will go on sale for a third time after the vote.
They are markedly quiet on its chances, instead trumpeting success in getting Fiat to agree to invest in the city of Kragujevac, home to the Zastava factory that makes the Yugo car.
Zoran Mihajlovic, a Zastava union leader and longtime pro-Western activist, said after years of broken promises, even he was sceptical about whether the deal would really go through.
"In eight years the factory has not been privatised," Mihajlovic told Reuters, "but the sale of Zastava is mentioned in every single election campaign."
Anita Milovanovic, a 32-year-old who works for Serbia's central bank, said that she understands the frustrations of the poor, but would vote for the pro-Western coalition on Sunday.
"Since 2000 my life is much better, I have a good job, money to go on holidays. It's difficult for me to even think how I used to live 10 years ago," she said.
"People forget how badly we were doing, it's not possible to change it overnight. We're on the right track now and we should keep going, instead of turning back to the past." (Writing by Ellie Tzortzi; editing by Keith Weir )
Topic: Serbs go to polls nostalgic for socialist past (Read 3862 times)