Balkans

Macedonia’s Prime Minister and conservative VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski is the most popular politician in the country, while the party’s candidate for president, Georgi Ivanov tops the list of presidential candidates, the latest opinion poll shows. Gruevski enjoys the trust of 31 per cent of respondents according to …

The southern Bosnian city of Mostar is facing and a rapidly worsening economic and social crisis brought on by intractable political bickering that has blocked the establishment of a new city government and adoption of its budget for more than five months. The head of Mostar’s Red Cross, Alen Kajtaz, …

The political rhetoric at the presidential and local poll campaign in Macedonia has so far been correct with only minor incidents occurring, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, said Sunday. In its second pre-election report for the campaign before the March 22 presidential and local election, the …

Thousands of Albanian opposition supporters protested on Sunday on the first anniversary of a deadly blast at an army depot outside Tirana, calling on Prime Minister Sali Berisha to quit and to stop his attacks on the justice system. After holding a rally in the village of Gerdec, the site …

Macedonia’s capital Skopje ground to a halt late Sunday as thousands of supporters poured in from across the country to attend the central election rally of the ruling conservative VMRO DPMNE party and its coalition “For a Better Macedonia”, ahead of presidential and local elections. The party organised buses and …

Thousands of frustrated police officers protested on Sunday in the centre of Sofia for fourth time in what became the largest protest so far. Police demanded a 50 per cent wage increase and improved working conditions. Deputy chair of the Podkrepa union, Dimitar Manolov, claimed around 15 000 police gathered …

Serbia will begin talks today with the International Monetary Fund on a new stand-by arrangement on Monday, in order to support its worsening balance of payments and currency. It is not yet clear exactly how much money the Serbia government will seek, with some local media quoting 2 billion euro …

TIRANA, Albania (AFP)–Several thousand Albanians demonstrated in the center of Tirana on Sunday to voice their anger at the government one year on from an explosion at an army munitions which killed 26 people. The protesters denounced the “state corruption” and chanted they would “never forget” as they recalled the …

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Friday (March 13th) that NATO should accept as members all countries from the Western Balkans.

ZAGREB, Croatia — Prime Minister Ivo Sanader urged the EU on Saturday (March 14th) not to succumb to what he described as Slovenia’s “blackmail”, which has blocked Zagreb’s accession to the EU over the border dispute between the two countries.