Compiled by: Hristo Voynov and Kristijan Fidanovski
1. A momentous verdict took place in Croatia, as the notoriously shady businessman and football club owner Zoran Mamic was sentenced to more than six years in prison. Mamic had been known for his close relations to politicians at both ends of the political spectrum and for his multi-million transfers of players from his club Dinamo Zagreb into leading European clubs.
2. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis is officially the government leader in charge of finding a ruling coalition. This prompted major protests in Prague and across the country. His only chances are the success of ongoing talks with the Social Democrats and Communist parties, which appear to be faltering. With the Social Democrats appearing (mostly) on board, the Communists have made another request regarding taxing churches. This is a fine line, as a failure to find an agreement will lead to early elections, while any agreement made will be contingent on continued support from Babis’ demanding allies.
3. One of Serbia’s oldest parties, the Democratic Party, has elected Zoran Lutovac as pary head. Lutovac will attempt to arrange cooperation with the rest of the weak and fragmented opposition in the country before the 2020 elections. The Democratic Party, which was the party of the assassinated prime minister Zoran Djindjic and was instrumental in the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, suffers from an all-time low rating in the polls.
4. Mayoral elections in Moldova’s capitol ended with an EU victory, as Andrei Nastase, the liberal pro-EU candidate, beat Ion Ceban of the Socialist party. With 39% turnout and only a 5% victory margin, this isn’t a resounding victory, nor one that indicates much about what to expect from Moldova in the future. Instead, it shows that Moldovan political society remains divided between the pro-EU and pro-Russian camps of government. The next elections are scheduled for November and will decide who controls the parliament, which is ruled by the liberal Democratic Party of Moldova.
5. The Macedonian government continues to reverse the conservative policies of the previous government. Most recently, the Health Minister has announced changes in the abortion law introduced by the previous government. The changes will make the abortion procedure quicker as well as extend the allowed abortion period for non-medical reasons up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
6. Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman stated he wants to fire the Finance Minister, Oleksandr Danylyuk. Danylyuk is an economic reformer who has the backing of the International Monetary Fund and claims he is being targeted for political purposes. He claims that this incident started over a hiring dispute in which President Petro Poroshenko’s allies were given an unfair advantage. The accusations against him are that he is providing international institutions who are helping Ukraine with reforms with false information which paints it in a bad light. From the outside, it is impossible to know whose correct in their accusations, but what is clear is that regardless of the truth or the outcome, this will continue complicating Ukraine’s progress towards Western institutions, be it because of corruption or political infighting.
7. An Albanian national airline, Air Albania, will be launched this summer as a joint venture between Turkish airlines and the Albanian government. Demand for air travel is exceptionally high in Albania, with over 2,2 million passengers having flown out of and into the Tirana airport in 2016.
8. Ukraine has charged a Hungarian state program based in its territory because it perceives it to be a threat to its territorial integrity. The organization, Edgar Ede, is meant to help Hungarian owned small businesses in Ukraine and claims that it is an outrageous charge as Ukraine is headed towards the EU anyways. The issue of the Hungarian diaspora is a hot topic within Hungarian politics as a large share of ethnic Hungarians live just outside of Hungary’s borders. But due to laws passed in Ukraine regarding minority rights, which were passed due to the war with pro-Russian separatists, the Hungarian community in Ukraine feels prosecuted, and this has been a major source of tension between the two that is likely to play a large role in bilateral relations for years to come.
9. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s crusade against critical voices in Serbia has now moved to Twitter. A number of journalists and civil society workers have been banned from following Vucic’s official Twitter account, which to them amounts to state discrimination as the Twitter account belongs to the institution of president rather than Vucic himself.
10. Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual Q&A session, which almost four and a half hours this year. Questions are prescreened and so nothing too controversial is asked of the president, but it is still good insight into the state of the government. Major ideas that he touched on were that Western sanctions were a result of the West mistakenly seeing Russia as competition instead of as a partner as well as attacking US tariffs on the EU and others as “widening the jurisdiction of its laws beyond its national borders” and “unacceptable”. He was asked regarding Ukraine’s possible actions against pro-Russian rebels during the World Cup, which prompted a slight threat to Ukraine if it takes such actions. He was optimistic about the economy, stating it is going in the right direction and growing, albeit slowly.
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