Serbia’s president-elect on his critics, Merkel and the outlook for the region.
Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić sat down with POLITICO on Wednesday for his first extensive interview since winning his country’s presidential election in a landslide.
In Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, signs of ethnic tension are on the rise again
A familiar billboard face looms large over the shabby streets and squares of the Balkan city of North Mitrovica.
“The Serbs stood by him all along!” says the slogan in English beneath the giant image of Donald Trump staring out passersby.
"New turbulent times are ahead of Serbia, many can't wait to undermine and destabilize it," says Aleksadar Vucic.
However, added the prime minister and the presidential candidate of the ruling SNS - "our message is that we will protect Serbia."
Vucic made the comments as he spoke with citizens welcoming him in the town of Vrbas, where he traveled for the start of reconstruction works on a local elementary school named after Petar Petrovic Njegos.
In response to Jasmin Mujanovic’s comment article, ‘New Partitions are the Last Thing the Balkans Need,’ Timothy Less maintains that the Balkan countries lack even the most basic elements needed to make multi-ethnicity work, so it is time to consider a new territorial settlement.
The starting point when formulating policy is to recognise the world as it is, not as one would like it to be.
The political settlement in the former Yugoslavia is unraveling. In Bosnia, the weakest state in the region, both Serbs and Croats are mounting a concerted challenge to the Dayton peace accords, the delicate set of compromises that hold the country together. In Macedonia, political figures from the large Albanian minority are calling for the federalization of the state along ethnic lines. In Kosovo, the Serb minority is insisting on the creation of a network of self-governing enclaves with effective independence from the central government.
Kosovo Deputy Interior Minister Milan Radojević confirms to Tanjug that the entry of vehicles with BiH plates is banned in Kosovo.
"Based on the interpretation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo, taking into account that BiH authorities do not allow entrance of vehicles from Kosovo, the Kosovo Police has received instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ban the entrance of vehicles with license plates of BiH", said Radojević to Tanjug last night.
Croatia's EU accession marked the end of one accession model, Regional Cooperation Council Secretary-General Goran Svilanovic said on Thursday.
The process is now completely different for Western Balkan states due to the circumstances in the region and the EU itself, such as the economic crisis, migration and Brexit, he said.
"Europe must define itself first," Svilanovic said at a conference titled (Re)-Balkanisation of the Western Balkans.
Kosovo police, in cooperation with the Kosovo Intelligence Agency prevented planned terrorist attacks in Kosovo and the region. Target of the attack were footballers, and supporters of Israel during a match in Albania. Miloš Popović from the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy says the objective of the arrested group is transnational because of connections with IS and the target of the attack shows it.
Kosovo lawyer, Azem Vllasi, has travelled to Bosnia and Herzegovina on behalf of the Kosovo Foreign Ministry to lobby for the lifting of visa requirements for the people of Kosovo. Vllasi already met in Sarajevo the chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bakir Izetbegović, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Adil Osmanović.
Saturday's protests in the Republika Srpska, Kosovo, and FYROM ended mostly peaceful and all political actors were satisfied by it. However, bearing in mind that continuation of the protests were announced, we explored whether the Western Balkan is again the powder keg.