Headlines: ecological revolt blocks roads in Serbia, power reacts with violence

Protesters blocking a highway in Belgrade on November 27, 2021 due to expropriation laws.

© Milos Miskov / AP Photo

Text by: Courrier des Balkans Follow |

Philippe Bertinchamps

3 min

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As the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, which plans to operate an underground lithium mine,

poisons the lives of villagers

in western Serbia's Jadar Valley

, the time has come for an ecological revolt across the country. country.

On November 27, conservationists blocked roads in protest against changing expropriation laws in favor of Rio Tinto. In provincial towns, minions of power attacked the crowd. The next day and the day after,

thousands of citizens protested against the regime's violence.

On Saturday 4 December, new demonstrations are planned in around thirty towns in Serbia.

Also in Serbia, Vietnamese workers working on the construction of the Chinese Linglong tire factory in Zrenjanin, whose passports had been confiscated, were going through 

a real ordeal in conditions bordering on slavery.

The same situation applies to Chinese workers at the Bor mine in eastern Serbia.

The authorities are trying to downplay the gravity of the situation.

In the north-west of the country, the city of Sombor is in disarray.

Close to Hungary and Croatia, this district capital has become a stopover on the Balkan migration route.

Except that the European Union has walled up its borders.

While the extreme right takes the opportunity to add fuel to the fire,

for the refugees as well as for the population, the situation becomes untenable.

Social crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina,

the coal miners won their case.

After the conclusion of an agreement between the government, the state-owned company Elektroprivreda BiH and the miners, the latter suspended their strike that began on 23 November, during which they camped in Sarajevo and demonstrated in Tuzla, Kakanj and Zenica. .

An action marked by

the solidarity of citizens.

A social success which should not make us forget that in the country,

a hundred companies abandoned by the government in the midst of the pandemic had to put the key under the doormat last month.

Pristina caring for the Kosovar diaspora

In Kosovo,

the diaspora has become a significant electoral force.

Every year, the hundreds of thousands of Kosovars living abroad send large sums of money to help their families back home.

A force on which Prime Minister Kurti relies, with whom he cares.

Moldovan black humor

“ 

Don't worry, we have the largest cemetery in Europe.

 To raise awareness among its population in favor of vaccination, the authorities in Moldova have found a new tool: humor, and in this case, black humor.

In the face of conspiracy theories and disinformation, will this strategy combining comedy and macabre, humor and reverse psychology prove to be effective?

For Yugoslavia, fashion was a tool of

soft power

and Jovanka Broz was its first ambassador.

But the role of the Yugoslav first lady was not reduced to a brand image or to the glamorous representation of the presidential couple.

She also supported the fashion industry and young Yugoslav designers.

Jovanka Broz, muse of the socialist regime.

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