BALKAN PRESS REVIEW

Headlines - Kosovo: tensions in the north and European candidacy

Kosovar policemen patrol the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo on December 9, 2022. © AP / Visar Kryeziu

Text by: Jean-Arnault Dérens Follow |

Balkan Mail Track

3 mins

A press review presented in partnership with Le Courrier des Balkans.

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Barricades, closed schools

 : once again,

, is paralyzed by tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

However, on both sides of the Ibar,

.

However,

.

However, this has very little chance of progressing, as five Member States of the Union do not recognize its independence.

Consolation prize: Pristina could hope for the lifting of visas within a year.

The complex reception of Ukrainian refugees

Bulgaria lacks health professionals, but many Ukrainian doctors or nurses are unable to find work... The reception of refugees has been tossed about according to political turbulence,

.

And, while Ukrainian refugees bear the brunt of these inconsistencies,

.

The image of refugees locked in a cage, under the impassive gaze of agents from the European Frontex mission, has gone around the world.

The authorities in Sofia are turning to Turkey to try to “ 

 ” of exiles which are constantly growing, as

.

He was 16 years old and was shot in the head by the police for not having paid 20 euros for petrol.

, who died in hospital on December 13, sparked a wave of protests in Greece, particularly within the Roma community.

Thousands of people marched again several evenings in a row in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki.

In Greece, as in all the Balkans,

.

In Serbia, barely 3% of waste is recycled, but it is the Roma who collect, sort and resell these secondary raw materials.

This circular economy model is threatened by European standards. 

Chinese

soft power 

is gaining ground in the region

China is increasingly present in the Balkans

, but it does not invest much in North Macedonia.

However, its influence continues to grow there, thanks to

.

In public opinion, the image of China refers more to an image of economic efficiency than to the authoritarian nature of its regime.

A scandal is shaking Serbia and Croatia, where Chinese police have actually been deployed.

Embarrassed by new revelations from the Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders on the existence of underground Chinese police stations intimidating the diaspora,

. 

 ".

Marshal Tito's Yugoslavia defended decolonization in the name of the self-determination of the peoples, but the socialist regime conducted a domestic policy that was sometimes problematic, particularly vis-à-vis the Albanians and the Roma.

How to understand and what to retain from this heritage?

.

Another challenge is that a new generation of feminists is emerging in the Balkans.

Often very young, they fight against patriarchy and the return in force of the moral order which followed the fall of the communist regimes.

Historian Fabio Giomi, a specialist in the history of women and gender in southeastern Europe,

.

All the Balkans vibrated in unison with Croatia

, dreaming until the last moment of qualifying for the final, but Argentina were stronger.

An overview of an enthusiasm that crosses the traditional lines of conflict, from Zagreb to Skopje, via Sarajevo, Pristina and Mitrovica.

In Kosovo, support for the Croatian team even succeeded in bringing together Albanians and Serbs!

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