Week in Review: Tricks and Stunts

History in the Making?

Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic at the polling station in Podgorica. Photo: BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

Montenegro's ruler of three decades, Milo Djukanovic, is in a pickle. April 2 could become a historic day if he loses in the second round of the presidential elections and gets voted out of power.

With the odds, as well as the electoral arithmetic from the first round, on the side of his challenger, Jakov Milatovic, Djukanovic and the DPS are leaving nothing to chance. Fear and history are being deployed to try to mobilise the country's minorities to come out and vote for Djukanovic.

Read more: Montenegro President Courts Minorities to Stave off Election Defeat (March 23, 2023)

Brake or Breakthrough?

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell (C) and EU Special Representative Miroslav Lajcak (L) meet with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R), during the High-level Meeting of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue in Ohrid, Republic of North Macedonia, 18 March 2023.Photo: EPA-EFE/DIMITRIJE GOLL

The meeting between the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia in Ohrid on March 18, under the watchful eye of EU and US mediators, was billed as a decisive moment, one where opportunities would be seized. While international actors hyped up expectations, local observers were more sceptical.

In his opinion piece for Balkan Insight, our editor Marcus Tanner takes a look at what came out of the Ohrid meeting - and what did not. Ultimately, it seems hard to escape the conclusion that neither Kosovo nor Serbia want to implement the deal being pushed by the EU and US, and will hence do their best to sabotage it.

Read more: Serbia and Kosovo Weren't Desperate...