In the News: A #MeToo wave sweeps over Serbia and the Balkans
illustrative image GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP / Archivos
Text by: Laurent Geslin Follow |
Courrier des Balkans Follow
4 min
A press review presented in partnership with "Le Courrier des Balkans".
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Women break the omerta surrounding sexual violence
It is a real tidal wave that arose in Serbia, spreading to all the countries of the Balkans.
On January 16, the famous actress Milena Radulović, 26,
publicly accused
her former theater teacher, the well-respected Miroslav Aleksić
,
of rape
.
The testimonies of other victims, often minors at the time of the events, have since multiplied.
More broadly, it is everyone in the cinema and entertainment industry that finds itself on the dock.
Is the culture of silence that prevailed in the cultural sector being broken?
The Balkans at the time of Covid-19
Five Balkan countries are among the ten countries most bereaved in the world by the Covid-19 epidemic: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Moldova and Slovenia.
The causes of this excess mortality are of course multiple, such as the general bankruptcy of the region's health systems, the exodus of health personnel or the advanced average age of the population.
Overview in the countries of the region.
In Romania,
it is the world of culture that is mobilizing
not to disappear, while aid from the authorities to support the sector is practically non-existent.
In protest, the director Alexander Nanau has even just refused the medal of the Cultural Order that was to be awarded to him by President Iohannis, triggering a heated controversy in the country.
At the economic level,
the consequences of the crisis are also starting to be felt in Bosnia and Herzegovina
.
According to the National Agency for Statistics, the unemployment rate has increased by 2.5% since the start of the pandemic and periods of technical unemployment are increasing, while the Bosnian social system is unable to provide the slightest safety net for people in need.
Economic changes in South-Eastern Europe
European integration is an illusion for Serbia and the other Balkan countries but, in an increasingly unequal world, will they be able to benefit from the globalization of work, which the pandemic has accelerated?
Economist Branko Milanović, visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, deciphers
new global trends.
With the inauguration in Serbia of the TurkStream gas pipeline, of the Russian Gazprom, the very forthcoming of the Azerbaijani TAP, and with the commissioning of the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, in Croatia, the Balkans are becoming
the theater of 'a merciless clash
between the world's largest gas producers.
And in this very competitive sector, the Russians in South-Eastern Europe have more to lose than to gain ...
A well-kept gastronomic secret
The recipe dates back to Genghis Khan, but it's in Novi Pazar, in southern Serbia, that you can find the best
mantije
in the Balkans, these delicious little puff pastry bites stuffed with meat.
We taste those of
Jasmin Dervišnurović
in all the receptions of Belgrade ... Bon appétit!
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