Balkan News

The militant Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has won the Serbian seat on Bosnia's state presidency, while his close ally, Zeljka Cvijanovic, has claimed victory in the race for the presidency of Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska.

Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia will pay out around 686 million euros in benefits to war veterans in 2018, but the treatment of ex-fighters continues to provoke political disputes and protests in each country.

Europe seems desperate to see Montenegro as its greatest Balkan success story – even if it means turning a blind eye to the less reported side of the story.

The main political parties in Bosnia rushed to declare victory on Sunday night in Bosnia's eighth post-war general election – although the Central Election Commission cautioned that it was far too early to confirm such claims.

Romanian conservative organizations and the Orthodox Church failed to mobilize enough voters to pass a referendum aiming to change the definition of the family in the constitution to “the union between a man and a woman.”

Bulgarian police confirmed on Sunday that Victoria Marinova, TV host and administrative director of the local TVN, has been killed – after reportedly being raped and then strangled.

Polls opened at 7am on Sunday in Bosnia for voters to cast their ballots in the eighth general election since the Dayton agreement ended the 1992-95 war.

Romanians go to the polls this weekend to vote in a referendum on whether they want to modify the country’s constitution to ban gay marriage – which the law already prohibits.  

Numerous Bosnians gathered on Friday in both Sarajevo and Banja Luka for more protest rallies about the unexplained deaths of two youngsters, David Dragicevic and Dzenan Memic.

As Kosovo gets closer to voting on draft laws on expanding the mandate of the Kosovo Security Force – which Serbia opposes – NATO calls for 'full consultations' with 'all communities'.

Plans to fine Montenegrins who do not stand up for the national anthem are causing divisions in a country where many still resent the country's independence.

A Croatian entrepreneur found guilty of trying to bribe Supreme Court judges in the case against 1990s general Branimir Glavas has absconded to Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of turning up to serve his two-year prison sentence.

Public frustration with the often shoddy standard of repair work in the capital, Sofia, has boiled over following the pricey but manifestly lousy revamp of one of the city's main boulevards.

Serbian activists rallied on the 14th anniversary of two soldiers’ unexplained killings at a Belgrade barracks where war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic was allegedly hiding, while the men’s families demanded progress in the investigation.

Macedonia’s Appeals Court on Friday confirmed the two-year jail sentence for the former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, for the illicit purchase of a luxury Mercedes.

Amid rumours of a possible change in US policy to Bosnia, the new US ambassador, Eric Nelson, has reiterated Washington's strong support for the country's territorial integrity.

As a problematic referendum in Macedonia puts a spanner in the works of the country’s name referendum, all energy seems to be focused on salvaging the crucial deal between Athens and Skopje. Meanwhile, elections and political skulduggery are turning up the political temperature in other corners of the region too. 

The largely unreformed media sector has contributed to the new government’s recent difficulties.

As Washington is engulfed by struggles within and between the White House and State Department, experts question whether the US still cares about Bosnia, its upcoming elections, or their possible consequences.

If the leader of the main Bosnian Serb opposition party fails to poll well in the upcoming elections, his career – and that of his party – could both be finished.