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The Balkans Today
The Balkans Today: 24th - 28th April 2017
Our team brings you live updates of the most important events and developments in the Balkans as they happen.
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Top stories from the Balkans this Monday:- Albania's opposition parties on Monday plan to block all national roads for one hour, as they up their confrontation with the government of Edi Rama. Read more.
- The new parliamentary majority faces growing calls to deal with the forces that are stopping it from forming a government. Read more.
- Tonislav Hristov’s film, ‘The Good Postman,’ about one man’s plan to resettle Syrian refugees in his dying Bulgarian village, will open the One World Documentary Film Fest in Brussels on Monday. Read more.
- Albania's opposition parties on Monday plan to block all national roads for one hour, as they up their confrontation with the government of Edi Rama. Read more.
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At National Conference on Judicial Reform in #Montenegro. A key reform area for #EU accession. Benefits for institu… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…by Mitja Drobnič via twitter 4/24/2017 9:00:50 AM -
The European Federation of Journalists, together with other international organisations, has initiated a call to save Bosnia’s public service broadcaster, BHRT, which is buckling under the weight of its some 20-million-euro of debts.
Since an agreement to collect licence fees through people’s monthly phone bills expired a year ago, Bosnia’s three telecoms operators have been collecting the funds on a voluntary basis, but this method is not producing enough cash to keep BHRT afloat. -
Opposition Democratic Party published on Sunday that the car of Miroslav Ilic, a local MP candidate on the part’s list in the town of Odzaci, northern Serbia, was set on fire twice on the eve of the local election.
Ilic told Beta news agency that he extinguished the first fire around midnight, when he returned from campaigning in a nearby village, but the vehicle was set alight again two hours later.
Serbian Police deny the fire was intentionally started by someone, announcing on Sunday there are no indications that the incident was a criminal act.
Ilic's car. Photo: Twitter/Dragan Sutanovac. -
Officials from the Socialist Party of Serbia, SPS, Dusan Bajatovic and Aleksandar Antic, travelled to the northern town of Vrbas on Sunday to reduce tensions, N1 television reported, after two activists for the party were attacked during local elections in town that day.SPS said that the activists were exiting a parking lot at a polling station when about ten cars blocked their path. The men were told to exit their vehicle and were then physically assaulted, Beta news agency reported.
Beaten SPS activists. Photo: Beta -
Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev launched consultations with all of the parties represented in the National Assembly on Monday on forming a new cabinet.By the end of Monday, Radev will have met with Volya, the ethnic-Turkish dominated party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, MRF, and the nationalistic United Patriots coalition, which is the expected partner of Boyko Borissov’s GERB in the future coalition government.He will sit down with Bulgaria’s main parties – the Bulgarian Socialist party and centre-right GERB on Tuesday, when he is expected to set a date for handing Borissov a mandate to form a government.
President Rumen Radev. Photo: Bulgarian Socialist Party -
Albanian opposition supporters have blocked the country's main road links, demanding that a caretaker Cabinet be allowed to govern until the parliamentary election in June, the Associated Press reported.
Thousands of opposition supporters blocked five national crossroads on Monday for an hour. Opposition Democratic Party leader Lulzim Basha says they were protesting "drug traffic, crime traffic, ballots traffic, corruption, money laundering traffic."
European Parliament negotiators are expected to arrive later on Monday to mediate between the governing left-wing coalition and the center-right opposition. The opposition so far has declined to negotiate unless Prime Minister Edi Rama resigns. -
Montenegro‘s former premier Milo Djukanovic on Sunday criticised the opposition as pro-Russian over its plans to boycott a vote in parliament on the country‘s NATO membership.
On Friday, parliament is set to ratify the agreement to join the military alliance in an irrevocable decision "of greatest historic importance," Djukanovic told the TV show Living Truth(Ziva istina).
But he accused the opposition, which has planned protests on Wednesday and a boycott on Friday, of "waving an empty gun" on orders from Russia. -
Inhabitants of the Savica neighbourhood in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, began a protest on Monday against Mayor Milan Bandic's plan to suddenly reconstruct one of the area’s parks.Civic initiative "Guard Our Park" called on citizens to join their peaceful attempt to block works at the park, with some citizens blocking trucks and bulldozers at the constructions site and filling in holes dug into the ground for the reconstruction project. -
Serbian right-wing National Freedom Movement endorsed France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen for president of France, calling on Serbs with the right to vote in the French elections to support her in the second round. The National Freedom Movement claimed that the riots that broke out in France after the first round of elections on April 23 are part of the same process that goes on in the Balkans.“For two years in Macedonia they rioted in the streets to topple the leader who was not supported by NATO and the EU, and now in Serbia the streets and threats of chaos are used to push for a new Prime Minister who will be supported by the NATO-EU oligarchy,“ the movement’s statement said.
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Thirty years ago, on April 24, 1987, former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic famously told a crowd of angry Serbs in Kosovo that “No one can beat you” - a phrase that resonated around the country and positioned him as political force.Within four years he had become president and led the country into war with its neighbour Croatia.
Slobodan Milosevic. Photo: Wikipedia -
The prevalence of diesel vehicles and bad conditions of the road network are among the main reasons for the high air pollution in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, a new report by the Bulgarian National Audit Office shows.Among the other factors for the high levels of fine dust particles in the air, for which Bulgaria was sanctioned by the European Court of Justice in April, are construction works in the city and the solid fuels used for heating in winter, the report states.
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Representatives of Serbia’s Ministry of Agriculture and China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, AQSIQ, signed a memorandum of understanding that enables Serbia to export of meat, corn, beets, dried prunes, milk and dairy produce to China.Serbia’s agriculture minister, Branislav Nedimovic, said that several Serbian companies are interested in exporting food to China, while some Chinese companies are also willing to invest in Serbia’s food industry.
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EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn called recent statements by Balkan politicians implying the possibility of redrawing regional borders “unacceptable and worse than counterproductive” in Brussels on Monday, Beta news agency reported.Earlier in the day, Hahn had met with Serbia’s foreign minister, Ivica Dacic, who is on a visit to Brussels to discuss his country’s EU accession process and the possibility of opening additional chapters.
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EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said on Monday that the Serbian government should engage the anti-government protesters in a discussion in order to end the nightly rallies that have been going on since Aleksandar Vucic won the presidential elections on April 2.Hahn congratulated Vucic, Serbia’s incumbent Prime Minister, on his election win, and said he expects the government of Serbia to be reconstituted soon in order to continue with the reforms.
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Former Kosovo Prime Minister and the leader of opposition Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj, granted the Albanian citizenship.
The decree was sign on Monday by the President of Albania, Bujar Nishani.
Ramush Haradinaj is waiting on the decision of French Court on Serbia's request to extradite him and trial on war crimes.
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Top stories from the Balkans this Tuesday:
- As the anniversary of the mysterious nighttime demolitions in Belgrade approaches, a witness, Milos Djordjevic, recalls how masked men in Savamala grabbed him and told him ‘to put his head down’. Read more.
- A source close to Macedonia's Special Prosecution, tasked with probing high-level crime, said its investigations will not stop even if its 18-month deadline to raise charges runs out and is not renewed. Read more.
- Vetevendosje is resisting pressure from its political allies to endorse AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj as the joint opposition candidate for the post of Prime Minister in the elections. Read more.
- As the anniversary of the mysterious nighttime demolitions in Belgrade approaches, a witness, Milos Djordjevic, recalls how masked men in Savamala grabbed him and told him ‘to put his head down’. Read more.
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Mayor of Belgrade Sinisa Mali announced today that he will not seek a second term as the head of Serbia’s capital after his first term expires next year.“I think I will go back to being an entrepreneur, but I am not ruling out the possibility of helping Belgrade, or the government and Serbia’s new president [Aleksandar Vucic],” Mali told the daily tabloid Alo.
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Prison conditions in Romania do not meet the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights and the country has six months to come up with a set of policies to solve the issue, the European Court of Human Rights decided in a ruling on Tuesday.
“I find it hard to believe that we can change in six months what we were not able to change in 20 years,” Romania’s Supreme Court president Cristina Tarcea said after the ruling, which, as a pilot judgement, means that the court will not admit any other case on prison conditions before the deadline. -
Serbian Prime Minister and President-elect Aleksandar Vucic and Belgrade’s Mayor, Sinisa Mali, are “involved in every way” in the Belgrade Waterfront project, Dobrica Veselinovic from the initiative Let’s Not Drown Belgrade (“Ne davimo Beograd”) stated on Tuesday, ahead of tonight’s protest marking the first anniversary of the controversial Savamala demolitions.Veselinovic told N1 television that protesters have got strength from the country’s citizens, who are starting to feel that Belgrade is “developing in wrong direction”.
Activists are preparing a widescale protest for April 25th, to mark the one year anniversary of the Savamala demolitions in Belgrade. Photo: Facebook/Let's not Drown Belgrade Initiative. -
The President of the Serbian Parliament, Maja Gojkovic, refused to let anti-government demonstrators watch today’s parliament session from the balcony, N1 television reported.MPs from the opposition Nova Stranka party, Zoran Zivkovic and Marinika Tepic, filed a request on Monday from 47 anti-government demonstrators to attend the session, with the MPs telling Serbian media that it is an opportunity for parliament to demonstrate openness and transparency.
Photo: Beta/Dragan Gojic. -
Romania’s Parliament scrapped conflict of interest from the country’s criminal code on Tuesday in a heated debate between the ruling Social Democrat Party and the opposition and will come into effect if the president promulgates it.
According to the new bill, conflict of interest has been replaced with “using public office to favor certain individuals” and it only applies to direct and second-degree relatives, while the code previously also applied to close friends, former coworkers, and commercial partners. -
State security agents and anti-corruption prosecutors are probing the Bulgarian State Agency Road Infrastructure for abuse of trust related to the construction of the “Maritsa” highway, which connects the south-central town of Chirpan with the Turkish border, the state prosecution announced on Tuesday.Without giving further details on the ongoing investigation, the prosecution explained that the probe has been launched after a signal from the European Anti-Fraud Office, OLAF, which investigates corruption and misconduct with money from the EU budget.
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The names of the ministers in the coalition government between Bulgaria’s main party, centre-right GERB, and the nationalistic United Patriots coalition will be announced on May 3, GERB’s leader Boyko Borissov said on Tuesday following a meeting with President Rumen Radev, during which the Head of State was informed about the coalition agreement and political program of the future cabinet.
Earlier on Tuesday the Presidency announced that Radev will hand GERB a mandate for forming a government on Thursday
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Campaigners organising major rally in #Belgrade tonight to mark first anniversary of nocturnal #Savamala demolition… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…by Balkan Insight via twitter 4/25/2017 3:42:36 PM -
A few hundred people gathered in Hercegovačka to protest the anniversary of Savamala demolitions #nedavimobeograd… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…by Balkan Insight via twitter 4/25/2017 3:56:52 PM
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Famous @nedavimobgd duck is back in #Savamala as we start our live coverage of the protest on twitter… https://t.co/Hoh2QRyVFF5:58 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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The site in #Savamala where illegal demolitions happened in the middle of the night exactly one year ago… twitter.com/i/web/status/8…6:06 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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Balaclava references abound, as the demolitions last year were done by masked individuals who haven't been identifi… https://t.co/oETD20yihT6:20 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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@nedavimobgd is joined by #protivdiktature protesters, as well as the police union #nedavimobeograd https://t.co/dDmaD4r2e0
6:23 PM - 25 Apr 2017- Reply
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Caricature of PM and president-elect Vučić in a balaclava whose government is alleged to have allowed illegal demol… https://t.co/HHmA6NZ2jJ6:27 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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Refugees who are staying in #Savamala are observing the protest #nedavimobeograd #protivdiktature https://t.co/2zSvJRwZQ1
6:32 PM - 25 Apr 2017- Reply
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6:39 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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@nedavimobgd thanked those who joined them today: police and army union and other protest movements from around Ser… https://t.co/nYVF4uVRdK6:46 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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Jovo Bakić accused the interior minister Stefanović of condoning illegal demolitions in #Savamala #nedavimobeograd https://t.co/pM2zYqxFJh
6:52 PM - 25 Apr 2017- Reply
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Bakić also drew parallels between Vučić and Erdogan in their increased powers #protivdiktature #nedavimobeograd https://t.co/fs2zOFVqVW
6:54 PM - 25 Apr 2017- Reply
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@nedavimobgd walk is approaching its final destination by Belgrade City Hall #nedavimobeograd https://t.co/WJBl0cAy0s8:34 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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The crowd is chanting "[Mayor] Siniša [Mali] - you thief!" @nedavimobgd #nedavimobeograd https://t.co/0YfNfusCGT8:34 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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In their final speech @nedavimobgd invited the crowd to join all other protests #nedavimobeograd #protivdiktature https://t.co/xTBXH2Tp6D
8:37 PM - 25 Apr 2017- Reply
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The final speech of @nedavimobgd ended with chants of "Our City!" and flares fired to illuminate the crowd… https://t.co/z9I4d7kqNQ8:43 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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We are finishing our coverage of tonight's @nedavimobgd protest with "Ay Carmela" protest song. #protivdiktature pr… https://t.co/cqE7jlNTBa8:47 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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You can read the highlights from tonight's @nedavimobgd protest against last year's #Savamala demolitions at… https://t.co/P2zGZRvxRh8:49 PM - 25 Apr 2017
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Top stories from the Balkans this Wednesday:
- The possible sale of Bosnia's key iron-ore mine to an Israeli investor has sparked political infighting in Republika Srpska and a diplomatic row involving Bosnian Serb politicians and Israel. Read more.
- Macedonian farmers have warned that they will 'paralyze' the country if the government does not deliver long overdue payments of subsidies that are now several months behind. Read more.
- A court must decide whether the former president of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, can stay Belgrade while receiving medical treatment, or return home to serve his jail term. Read more.
- The possible sale of Bosnia's key iron-ore mine to an Israeli investor has sparked political infighting in Republika Srpska and a diplomatic row involving Bosnian Serb politicians and Israel. Read more.
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Serbia will retain its military neutrality despite neighbouring Montenegro's decision to join NATO, and will not seek membership in any military alliances, Serbian Defence Minister Zoran Djordjevic told Russian media outlet Sputnik on Wednesday.“As for our relations with Montenegro, we have good relations with this country, we respect its choice. They are [seeking accession to NATO] in the interests of their people,” Djordevic said, adding that “Serbia has an independent policy and remains a militarily neutral state. It does not want to join military alliances, remaining the guarantor of security.”
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US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Yee will arrive in Macedonia's capital, Skopje, on May 1 amid a deep political gridlock in the Balkan country over the disputed election of a new opposition-led government, the US embassy in Skopje has confirmed.Yee is expected to have meetings with political party leaders and discuss the blocked formation of a new government, bilateral ties and reforms needed for Macedonia's Euro-Atlantic integration.
Hoyt Yee. Archive Photo: MIA
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