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Balkan Developments

Erdogan terms Nazi statements by Merkel, Schulz

Photo: BGNESTurkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has termed Nazi the statements of the two contenders for Germany’s Chancellor’s Office, Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz. They both said they would seek support from other EU countries for termination of Turkey’s EU accession talks. The German politicians declared such intentions during their televised debate on 3 Sept. In the meantime, a survey of the Turkish-European Foundation for Education and Scientific Studies (TAVAK) has suggested that Erdogan’s appeal to Turks in Germany to vote for neither of the big parties there has not impressed them and 64% of them intend to do the opposite.

Serbia hopes to enter EU before it falls apart

Photo: BGNESDuring a discussion dedicated to the Western Balkans and held within the framework of the Bled Strategic Forum 2017 in Slovenia, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said that he hoped Serbia would enter the European Union before it had fallen apart. According to the minister, “the Balkans is so late with EU accession that it looks as though its countries will never accede to it”. Cracking a joke Ivica Dacic warned that if Serbia was not made an EU member, it would demand accession to the United States. “At least, we are closer than the Hawaii”, he pointed out.

New government coalition agreed in Kosovo

Photo: zeri.infoThe Kosovo political groups Alliance for Kosovo, Democratic Party of Kosovo, Alliance for the Future of Kosovo and Initiative for Kosovo have signed a coalition agreement. The new coalition has the necessary parliamentary majority to exit the political crisis thus paving the way for a new government to be formed several months after the parliamentary elections in that country.

PM Zaev optimistic about settlement of Macedonia name dispute

Photo: BGNESMacedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said that after establishing friendly relations with Greece, there are better prospects for the settlement of the Macedonia name dispute. The prime minister believes that with the assistance of the mediator in the dialogue Matthew Nimetz new solutions of the problem are likely to emerge in December, January or February. The incumbent Macedonian government has the courage and is able to achieve national consensus on the issue by working together with the opposition for a referendum to listen to the final say of citizens, Zaev has commented.

Parliamentary committee says 2009 Romania elections were fake

Photo: BGNES and romania-insider.comIn 2009 the administration of the Romanian president and the government of Emil Boc conducted actions for falsification of results in the presidential election. Election fraud was meant to benefit Traian Basescu who back then received a second term of office. This is reported by AGERPRES News Agency which refers to the conclusions of a parliamentary committee set up in May to investigate into irregularities during the elections. According to the committee’s report the actions of the two structures were fully synchronized.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English: Daniela Konstantinova


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