Balkan Press Review

Headlines: A 'kind of normalization agreement' reached between Kosovo and Serbia

Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti (C) arrives for a meeting with European Union mediators, as part of the Kosovo-Serbia talks, in Ohrid on March 18, 2023. © ARMEND NIMANI / AFP

Text by: Courrier des Balkans Follow | Florentin Cassonnet

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"We have an agreement," said Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy. The talks on the Macedonian shore of Lake Ohrid lasted until 22 p.m. on Saturday 18 March. A "kind of agreement has been reached", said Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, while assuring that he had "signed nothing". Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti regretted this, before putting pressure on the EU. It is an 11-article roadmap based on the "Franco-German plan" submitted to both parties in November 2022.

However, it took only a few days after the "Ohrid Agreement" for Belgrade and Pristina to accuse each other of a lack of will in its implementation. Thus, Aleksandar Vučić and Albin Kurti each begin to make their own exegesis of the meaning of the different articles, as if they had not spent 12 hours discussing them a few days before. The European Union wants to see implementation completed by the end of 2023, because in 2024 "there will be elections and a new political reality".

In 2020, Twitter denounced the manipulations of the Vučić regime in the middle of the election campaign. Today, it is Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which reveals how the party of the Serbian president uses fake accounts on social networks to influence opinion... At the taxpayer's expense.

Moldova has a 'window of opportunity' to settle frozen Transnistrian conflict

For 30 years, the Transnistrian issue has still not been resolved, but the war in Ukraine and the political alternation in Moldova have changed the situation. While the regime in Tiraspol was more isolated than ever, the authorities in Chișinău began to put pressure on the separatist province. But there is still a real plan to reintegrate her. Analysis.

For several weeks, there has been talk of a mysterious "Russian destabilization plan" aimed at overthrowing the pro-European power in Moldova. A secret leaked Kremlin document reveals the content of the 2021 plan to bring the country back into Russia's sphere of influence by 2030. But Moscow did not take Ukraine "in three days" and its Moldovan plan is behind schedule, if not failing. Because Chișinău has taken steps with the support of the EU, which is preparing to send a civilian mission to the young integration candidate.

Milorad Dodik launches a new offensive against civil society in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a draft law copied on the Russian model: the latter aims to regulate the activity of "foreign agents", i.e. members of NGOs receiving funding from other countries. This is the second controversial bill in a few weeks, after the one to reintroduce the offences of defamation and insults, a real threat to the free media of Republika Srpska. But journalists refuse to give in to this new pressure from the Dodik regime against freedom of expression.

In Montenegro, last lap for the "lord" Đukanović

Milo Đukanović came out ahead in the first round of the Montenegrin presidential election with 35% of the vote, but he has no reserves of votes for the second round, scheduled for 2nd April, where he will face Jakov Milatović, the candidate of the Europe Now movement. "This is the victory of those who have fought for 30 years," he said. Milo Đukanović has been in power for three decades. In August 2020, his party, the DPS, was sent into opposition. If he does lose on April 2, it will mark a historic turning point for Montenegro.

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Our economy was not ready for the euro. In Croatia, inflation continues to rise, aggravated by the changeover to the euro, wages are stagnating and more and more citizens are struggling to make ends meet. For trade unionist Matija Kroflin, only a general increase in wages can convince workers who have not yet emigrated to stay in Croatia. Maintenance. On March 21, in early spring, Sufi dervishes celebrate Sultan Nevruz, the "new day," a ritual during which they reach a trance-like state. Report in pictures in southern Serbia, Kosovo and North Macedonia.

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  • Moldova
  • Serbia
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  • Press review