BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) - Serbs faced a critical crossroads on Sunday: Take another step toward mainstream Europe, or revert to a hardline stance reminiscent of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party clung to a slim lead heading into parliamentary elections, closely trailed by President Boris Tadic's pro-Western coalition.

Potential kingmakers included nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's conservative bloc and Milosevic's Socialists. One - or both - were expected to help form a new government with an anti-Western and pro-Russia stance.

"People here can't shake the feeling that Europe isn't fair and just toward Serbia," Braca Grubacic, a prominent political analyst, said Saturday. "Serbia is not like it used to be, but the problems and the political agenda are the same as they were during the Milosevic era."

Kostunica and Radical Party leader Tomislav Nikolic capitalized on an acute sense of betrayal after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February and gained formal recognition from the U.S., Canada, Japan and key European powers.

Serbs consider Kosovo the heart of their ancient homeland and Serbian Orthodox faith, and their bitterness has nudged the country toward ultranationalists promising to restore bruised national pride.

The nationalists also have exploited disenchantment with 30 percent unemployment, rising prices and corruption.

Tadic, who opposes Kosovo's independence but wants to steer Serbia toward the European Union, has received death threats. He also has been publicly denounced as a traitor for signing a pre-entry aid and trade pact with the EU - a deal that Kostunica and Nikolic contend amounts to blood money in exchange for giving up Kosovo.

Nikolic, meanwhile, basked in the belief that his day has come.

Over the past five years, the Radicals have steadily gained power and influence in Serbia. In the last three elections, they won a majority in the 250-seat parliament, but were unable to govern without the support of Kostunica's bloc.

It remained unclear exactly what combination of parties will join forces to form a government - but a Kostunica-Nikolic alliance looked likely.

Both Kostunica and Nikolic have said Serbia should shelve its proclaimed goal of joining the EU, and concentrate instead on establishing close political and economic ties with Russia.

Some Serbs are understandably skittish about the possibility that their country could revert to nationalist or even ultranationalist rule and slide deeper into instability and isolation.

Milosevic was ousted by a pro-democracy movement in 2000, and the former leader - who presided over the bloody 1990s breakup of Yugoslavia - died in March 2006 in a prison cell in The Hague, Netherlands, where a U.N. tribunal was trying him for atrocities in the Balkans.

"God help us if those Radicals come to power with the help of Kostunica," said Zorica Katanic, a 22-year-old economics student.

"I swear, I'll pack my bags and head for anywhere outside this Godforsaken country if that happens," Katanic said. "I could not live through that nightmare once again."

But Charles Ingrao, a Balkans expert at Purdue University, insists the world shouldn't fear a reprise of Milosevic-style bloodshed.