In the spotlight: the French far right, the Balkans and the fantasy of the “great replacement”
Shot of a street in Belgrade, capital of Serbia.
© AP/Darko Vojinovic
Text by: Courrier des Balkans Follow |
Marion Roussey
3 mins
A press review presented in partnership with
Le Courrier des Balkans
.
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In recent years,
the French far right has taken a liking to the Serbs
, erected as fragile "bulwarks of Christianity" in the face of the alleged conquering assaults of the Balkan Muslims.
A story that succeeds in uniting all the nationalist chapels, from the supporters of Marine Le Pen to those of Éric Zemmour.
On April 9, Serbia received a large shipment of military equipment from China.
At least six Chinese Air Force Y-20 planes have landed at a military airport near Belgrade.
According to military experts, it would be a delivery of Chinese HQ-22 ground-to-air systems – the equivalent of the Russian S-300 and the American Patriot – for the Serbian army.
The operation risks contributing to the arms race in the Balkans.
It is also
China's "show of force"
serving to affirm the projection capacity of the Chinese Air Force in Europe.
Disturbing revelations
from the Swiss channel RTS: Dick Marty, the former rapporteur of the Council of Europe who revealed the war crimes attributed to the Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), would be threatened with death at his home in Switzerland by the Serbian secret services, which would like to blame Kosovo for its elimination.
War crimes in Ukraine: the experience of the Balkans and the ICTY
Will war crimes committed in Ukraine be tried?
While waiting for the creation of an international tribunal, we must collect as much evidence as possible before it disappears.
Feedback
with Patrick Lopez-Terres, former Director of Investigations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
“
You have to listen to the children who grew up in times of war.
In Belgrade and Pristina, two exhibitions give
a voice to
Ukrainian, Syrian and Balkan children who grew up during the war in their countries.
The Wartime Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, collected their stories associated with objects from their daily lives.
In Montenegro, 19,000 properties
are owned by Russian nationals
.
Among them, the oligarch Oleg Deripaska, very close to Vladimir Putin, or the Moscow prosecutor, Denis Popov.
Milo Đukanović had opened the doors of the small country to Russian capital without limits.
In Greece, there are
good and “bad” refugees
.
While the country welcomes Ukrainians with open arms, NGOs denounce the mistreatment of other refugees, subjected to violent refoulement at the borders with Turkey.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: the International High Representative sanctions Milorad Dodik
This is a first since he took office: on April 13, Christian Schmidt, the International High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina, used the “powers of Bonn” to
break a separatist measure by the Serbian entity
.
His decision immediately sparked a storm of reactions in the Republika Srpska.
The authorities do not intend to withdraw the law.
The day before, the United Kingdom had announced economic sanctions, including travel bans and asset freezes, against Milorad Dodik, the strongman of Republika Srpska and member of the tripartite presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Željka Cvijanović, the president of the Serbian entity.
For its part, the United States has placed seven former senior Balkan politicians on its list of people sanctioned for corruption.
Is this
the start of an offensive by Western countries
against the autocrats and corrupt politicians of the Balkans?
For some experts, tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina
threaten the holding of general elections scheduled for October
.
The three members of the tripartite presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot agree on a reform of the electoral law.
The neighboring country, Croatia, interferes and calls for the election to be postponed.
The leader of the Croatian nationalists of the HDZ-BiH, Dragan Čović, threatens to create a third entity.
To the political crisis is added an economic crisis.
Whether in Sarajevo or Banja Luka,
the number of soup kitchens has exploded
.
In question, inflation and rising food prices against a backdrop of wages still too low to live decently.
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