BALKAN PRESS REVIEW
In the News: new tensions between Ukraine and Romania
The cargo ship "Rahmi Yagci" leaves the port of Odessa, Ukraine, Tuesday, August 9, 2022. (Illustrative photo) © AP Photo/Michael Shtekel
Text by: Courrier des Balkans Follow | Simon Rico Follow | Philippe Bertinchamps
3 min
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Since the beginning of the war, the Danube Delta has once again become a strategic trade route for Ukraine. In question, the blockade of the Black Sea by the Russian army. Kiev wants to deepen the Bystroe border canal to get large ships through. But Romania opposes this by invoking the environment and international law. Explanations.
Has Serbia become the home of Russian diplomats suspected of spying by EU member states? According to an investigation by Radio Free Europe, at least four diplomats have been reassigned to the Russian embassy in Belgrade.
In recent months, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia have been targeted by numerous false bomb threats. North Macedonia, the last country to join NATO, is also targeted. Main targets: schools. The authorities in Skopje acknowledge their powerlessness and ask for help.
Orthodox Church and Serbian nationalists do not want an agreement with Kosovo
On Saturday 18 March, a "key meeting" under the patronage of the European Union is to take place on the Macedonian shore of Lake Ohrid between Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti. The aim is to reach an agreement between the two neighbours as soon as possible to settle their interminable quarrel, nearly a quarter of a century after the 1999 war. It is in this context that the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church recalled at a ceremony the importance of the "Kosovo Oath" in the national myth. Serb nationalists are also trying to block any agreement between Belgrade and Pristina. The group Narodna Patrola (People's Patrol) multiplies the rallies, sometimes violent, to make its opposition heard by vowing that "Kosovo is Serbia". Long tolerated by the Vučić regime, the far-right pro-Russian and anti-migrant group seems to have become troublesome.
Greece still angry
In Greece, the rumblings are not abating, more than two weeks after the worst rail disaster in its history, which killed 57 people. Almost every day, thousands express their frustration with the government. On Thursday, March 16, the country was again blocked by a new general strike and the demonstration in Athens ended again in scuffles. The general elections announced for the end of spring promise to be complicated for the conservative Prime Minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis.
Complicated elections for incumbents in Montenegro and Turkey
On the other side of the Aegean Sea, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is also in bad shape. Despite the devastating earthquakes of early February and popular anger against his mismanagement, the strong man of Ankara has decided to maintain the legislative and presidential elections on May 14. Opposite, the opposition is trying to rally behind a unitary candidacy. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Kemalist party, was appointed by a coalition of six parties and hopes to dethrone the Islamic-conservative leader, who has led Turkey since 2002. Portrait.
On Sunday, it is the first round of a tense and uncertain presidential election that is being played out in Montenegro. Outgoing President Milo Đukanović will play for his political survival after alternating the functions of head of state and head of government since 1991. The longest-serving Balkan leader, still in power, knows that if he wins, he can put his party back in the saddle, but if he loses, he loses everything.
A victory for nature in Albania
Good news for environmentalists in Albania: ten years of struggle to save the Vjosa River have finally paid off. The "last wild river" in Europe has just been classified as a National Park. The authorities have abandoned their destructive plans for mini-power plants on its course and now intend to develop green tourism.
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Read on on the same topics:
- Press review
- Ukraine
- Romania
- Serbia
- Russia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- Kosovo
- Greece
- Turkey
- Montenegro
- Albania
- Balkans
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