Macedonia

A spell of stormy weather will be sweeping into Greece from the west on Tuesday afternoon, bringing downpours, thunder and hail to many parts all through Wednesday.

Sergej Andreevski, the artist from North Macedonia whose exhibition in a municipal gallery in the Thessaloniki suburb of Kalamaria was disrupted last week by a far-right group, released a statement to the media Monday thanking the municipality, Greek authorities, the public "who stood by art" and commenting on the place of art in today's world.

The full statement follows:

The trips of Bulgarian citizens abroad in March were 570.1 thousand, or 5.9% more than those registered in March 2022.

About 10 black-clad individuals belonging to a far-right group barged into a municipal gallery in Thessaloniki exhibiting the work of an artist from North Macedonia, harassed the artist and the staff and ordered them to pull down the works. 

"There are 3,500 Bulgarians in North Macedonia" - this is what the Minister of Foreign Affairs of RNM, Bujar Osmani, told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. EPP MEP Andrey Kovachev objected to these numbers. The Bulgarian MEPs again raised the issue of mistreatment of our compatriots in the Balkan country.

BIRN delves into the modest money and limited activity behind three 'cultural clubs' in North Macedonia and Bulgaria that have nonetheless poured fuel on the fire of a long-running bilateral dispute.

As the North Macedonian parliamentary commission starts work this week on drafting important but controversial change designed to satisfy neighbouring Bulgaria, opposition parties have cried foul, insisting that the experts nominated in it lack credibility, as they are close to the ruling parties.

"Geocultura," inspiring the connection between cultivation of the land and cultivation of the mind, is the broad theme of the 8th Thessaloniki Biennale, running out of the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (momus.gr) at different venues across the northern port city.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promised residents in Megalopoli on Friday that future investments will help the town in the central Peloponnese deal with the impact of phasing out lignite. 

Frontex, the European Union's border agency, began deploying guards on Thursday at North Macedonia's southern border with Greece in a collaboration with Skopje to monitor and prevent illegal migration and cross-border crime. 

Frontex officials said that under an agreement signed last October, they will deploy more than 100 border guards.