In the spotlight: first meeting in Brussels between Albin Kurti and Aleksandar Vučić
Albin Kurti is sometimes nicknamed "the Robespierre of Kosovo".
© AP / Visar Kryeziu
Text by: Laurent Geslin Follow |
Courrier des Balkans Follow
4 min
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Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić
spoke for the first time
on June 15 in Brussels.
But the two leaders left without progress, after exposing their differences.
Next meeting scheduled for July.
In Pristina, tensions erupted after the celebration of a mass in the Orthodox cathedral, as the status of the building, unfinished,
opposes the Serbian Orthodox Church and the University of Pristina
.
The construction of the church was started in 1992 by Patriarch Pavle on the grounds of the university campus.
Marine Le Pen and the National Rally dredge the Serbs of France
Serbia "
has no interest in integrating the European Union
", assures Marine Le Pen,
interviewed by the Serbian daily
Novosti
.
The National Gathering presents two head of the list from Serbian immigration in the regional elections on Sunday, June 20.
Memories of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina still haunt the Balkans
This is a first: the Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
admitted to having forcibly and illegally detained
prisoners during the war.
One of them, Mirsad Duratović, has just obtained the status of victim of torture in the camps of Trnopolje, Omarska and Manjača.
In neighboring Montenegro, the small country's parliament overwhelmingly
adopted a resolution condemning the denial of the
Srebrenica
genocide
and Justice Minister Vladimir Leposavić was sacked.
The latter had asked for "proof" that
such a genocide had indeed been committed
.
This departure plunges the government coalition into a position of fragility, the Democratic Front having announced that it was boycotting Parliament.
China on the offensive in the Balkans
More and more Serbian students are
turning their gaze to the east
, as academic cooperation between Belgrade and Beijing grows stronger every year.
Serbia is indeed one of the essential links in the “New Silk Road”, which should eventually link European markets to the Middle Empire and China intends to develop its cultural influence along this strategic axis.
While the United States accuses Beijing of "spreading its propaganda", Washington for its part is securing the 5G networks in the Balkans.
Last Sunday, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama signed a memorandum with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “coordinate” the 5G infrastructure of the two countries.
Clearly, Tirana
undertakes not to use the technologies of Chinese Huawei
, even if the name of the Chinese giant has not been mentioned.
Drug stories
In Serbia, the Court of Cassation overturned, on June 15, the verdict condemning the international drug baron Darko Šarić to fifteen years in prison.
Serbian justice claims a procedural error
. He was prosecuted for "the trafficking of more than five tonnes of cocaine and the laundering of at least 22 million euros". His trial was marked by countless interruptions and twists and turns.
In Albania,
hundreds of millions of euros of dirty money
enter the country every year and most of this money is laundered in the construction sector.
Between the first quarters of 2020 and 2021, the amount of building permits granted across the country has doubled, despite the pandemic ... According to some estimates, these last three, around 1.6 billion euros have thus been cleared.
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