Balkan Insight

Hungary’s election will be monitored by observers from several international organisations, but the credentials of some have been challenged. Simultaneously, a new documentary is raising fresh concerns about the integrity of the country’s electoral system.

North Macedonia’s main ruling party, the centre-right VMRO DPMNE, boasts a property portfolio almost ten times bigger than that of its chief rival.

Announcements about the planned integration of Serbian-run ‘parallel’ education and healthcare bodies into Kosovo’s own system are unsettling local Serbs.

Aleksandar “Aco” Djukanovic, brother of former Montenegrin leader Milo Djukanovic, has been charged with the illegal possession of weapons and explosive materials.

Instead of being an arena for resolving political disputes, elections across the region increasingly seem to be producing more problems than they resolve, as our selection of Premium stories this week testifies.

Minister says Turkey and social media companies have agreed that Turkish citizens will soon have to verify their identities to use social media accounts - a move to end anonymity that could affect dissenting voices online.

A probe by European prosecutors into an alleged organised fraud scheme involving EU agricultural funds, which is claimed to have included former and current Greek ministers and MPs, has prompted the resignation of three senior officials.

The International Commission on Missing Persons has gathered evidence of a series of sites believed to have been used by Albania’s Communist regime to bury the bodies of political opponents, and is calling on the authorities to launch excavations.

Elsewhere, Hungarian foreign minister tells Lavrov he is ‘always at his disposal’; 14,000 protest Slovak culture minister’s attack on arts; and Czechia and Slovakia resume high-level intergovernmental discussions 3 years after last such meeting.

As Vjosa Osmani gets ready to vacate the presidential office this weekend, her political ambitions are clear - but whether she can realise them is less certain.

Kurdish investigative reporter Rusen Takva says the repeated blocking of his social media accounts shows how court-ordered content restrictions are being used to curbing press freedom in Turkey.

Witness accounts and watchdog reports point to widespread physical and verbal abuse, neglect, restraint and sedation in understaffed care homes in Croatia for the elderly and those with mental disabilities.

Former CIA officer's lawyer claims Montenegrin prosecutors threatened to prosecute Joseph Assad if he refused to testify in the now-dismissed 2016 'coup plot' case.

Lence Ristoska quits after being removed from two politically sensitive cases concerning alleged corruption within the ruling party – calling it the last straw in a series of moves aimed at preventing her from doing her job.

Politicians accuse each other of poor planning and mismanagement after a Brussels court orders Romania to pay more than 600 million euros for unclaimed COVID-19 vaccines from US pharma giant Pfizer.

The latest BIRN Western Balkans Stability Monitor looks at how the year began across the region, with governments battling to survive amid rising global uncertainty.

The British government is wondering whether promises of closer links to Europe may help woo largely hostile voters. Meanwhile, a right-wing newspaper is touting Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic for his tenacity in standing up to the EU.

North Macedonia’s new Chief Prosecutor, Nenad Saveski, has made a decision that could determine the fate of two of the country’s most sensitive cases, both of which target the alleged illegal financing of the governing party.

Desperate for a success, the EU appears to be rushing Montenegro toward membership by 2028, or 2029 at the latest. But beneath the optimism lie ticking time bombs, including the long shadow of Djukanovic and the persistence of Serb nationalism.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s victory to secure a place in the 2026 World Cup sparked celebrations on the streets of Sarajevo, offering a moment of joy amid constant political crisis – and pointing a way towards possible progress.