Headline: Western Balkan countries call on their citizens to leave Ukraine

A Ukrainian soldier during a military exercise in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, February 15, 2022. © AP/Vadim Ghirda

Text by: Courrier des Balkans Follow |

Marion Roussey

4 mins

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After the United States and the member countries of the European Union, the States of South-Eastern Europe are reacting in turn.

Fearing a Russian invasion in Ukraine, most have

and to report to the authorities in the event of a trip planned in the coming weeks.

Those who live there, like the 5,000 

, are prepared for all risks of slippage, even if they claim not to fear war.

The prospect of a conflict in Ukraine also raises fears of shortages and rising prices in the Balkans which are highly dependent on Russian gas.

In Kosovo, the government has decided to

.

A decision that comes as the country goes through this winter, by the very admission of its leaders, its worst energy crisis since independence, declared on February 17, 2008.

According to investigative outlet

, 26 women from Serbia are

, waiting in vain to be able to return to their country.

But the authorities in Belgrade do not seem to be in a hurry to repatriate them, despite the requests of their families and the ill-treatment that these detainees report.

Croatia: the euro and digital nomads

On January 1, 2023,

.

The competition launched by National Bank to create the design of future coins turned into a fiasco.

The creator of the future 1 euro coin, stamped with the image of a marten, the small mammal which gives its name to the current Croatian currency, has been accused of plagiarism.

The symbol also remains associated with the pro-Nazi Ustashi regime.

A citizen petition has even been launched, which proposes to replace the marten of discord with a Dalmatian.

Tourism activity is one of Croatia's main economic resources.

But with the pandemic, the sector is at half mast.

To make up for the drop in income, the country passed a new law

.

The text facilitates the process of coming to settle in Croatia, provided that you can prove a monthly income of at least 2,250 euros or have 27,000 euros in your bank account.

A false good idea for many researchers and unions, while the country is emptying of its vital forces and doing nothing to convince them to stay.

Serbia enters election campaign

On April 3, voters in Serbia and Hungary will go to the polls on the same day, a date that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and President Aleksandar Vučić

.

The two men, strongly criticized for their authoritarian excesses, rely on the large Hungarian minority in Vojvodina, who vote in both countries, to support each other.

More than twenty years after the fall of the Milošević regime,

.

In many municipalities, the number of voters would thus be much higher than the actual number of inhabitants.

With supporting evidence, the opposition accuses the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the party that has dominated political life since 2012, of having registered new residents in the capital Belgrade...

The threat from the far right

In Serbia, the authorities have been focusing for a decade on a national strategy against the Islamist threat.

However, according to a recent study by the Center for Security Policy in Belgrade and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, it is

from the country.

On February 12, small groups of the European far right gathered in Sofia to commemorate the anniversary of the death of General Hristo Lukov, the main architect of the Holocaust in Bulgaria.

Prohibited on several occasions by the municipality of Sofia, the

despite the pandemic.

Facing them, anti-fascist rallies were also organized.

In Kosovo, the case of the project to renovate the house of Xhafer Deva, a former Nazi collaborator, aroused strong reactions.

In addition to the angry reactions, which go beyond the borders of the country,

is also taking place in the local press.

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