Monday Briefing from the Balkans: March 31, 2025
Source: Balkan Insight
Flooding around the town of Djurdjenovac, Croatia at the weekend. Photo: Osijek-Baranja County.
State of emergency over floods in Croatia
A state of emergency was imposed in several places in Croatia on Saturday and Sunday after flooding from the Una, Korana, Kupa and Sava rivers that inundated some areas in Osijek-Baranja County and disrupted traffic. By Saturday afternoon, more than 600 firefighters had been engaged in flood protection across several counties.
More flood protection measures will be implemented in the coming days, officials said. “We hope that there will be no major threat to the entire lower reaches of the Sava, from Jasenovac to Zupanja,” said Tomislav Novosel, from the main Flood Protection Centre.
Faculty dean wounded in knife attack in Serbia
A series of protests were held on Sunday in Serbia after Natalija Jovanovic, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at Nis University, was attacked by a person with a knife. The attacker, identified later as a woman born in 1956, was arrested on the spot. Jovanovic has been targeted repeatedly by Serbia’s authorities over her support for student-led protests and blockades.
On Saturday, thousands of people gathered in front of the offices of the pro-government tabloid Informer in Belgrade to protest against its smear campaigns and targeting of students participating in the protests and blockades. The protest lasted about eight hours and there were no major incidents.
Read BIRN’s analysis of the European Union’s attitude to the Serbia protests here.
Four victims of North Macedonia fire in critical condition
Two weeks after the deadly fire at a nightclub in the town of Kocani on March 16, roughly half of the almost 200 people who were injured in the blaze have been released from hospital and sent home, medical authorities in North Macedonia said on Sunday.
However, four patients being treated abroad remain in critical condition, the Health Ministry said. After the tragedy that cost 59 lives, 105 of the injured remain in hospital – 89 of them in facilities abroad, while 16 are being treated inside the country.
Read BIRN’s report from Kocani on the aftermath of the fire here.
Massacre anniversary marked in Kosovo
On the 26th anniversary on Sunday of the massacre in the village of Milosheva/Milosevo in the Obiliq/Obilic area, carried out by Serbian forces, Prime Minister Albin Kurti paid homage to the victims at the tomb of the four members of the Morina family who were killed. Read BIRN’s in-depth feature about the massacre here.
Kurti also paid homage to war victims in Abri e Eperme/Gornje Obrinje in the Drenas area, where 23 members of the Deliu family were killed on September 26, 1998.
The prime minister’s office said that 13 per cent of victims of the Kosovo war were children, and that, through the Ministry of Culture, the government will create a central memorial in remembrance of all the child casualties.
Albanian PM rallies diaspora supporters in Greece
Albania’s Socialist Prime Minister, Edi Rama, held two rallies in Greece ahead of parliamentary elections in Albania on May 11. On Sunday, a packed gathering took place at the Hellenic World Cultural Centre in Piraeus. On Saturday, he was in Chania, Crete where he spoke at the Kladissos stadium.
Read BIRN’s analysis about diaspora Albanians’ possible impact on the upcoming polls here.
Greek church to set up digital bank
Kathimerini newspaper reported on Sunday that the Orthodox Church in Greece will set up its own digital bank through the company Financial Innovation Holding.
The project is being run by the former president of the Postal Savings Bank, Angelos Filippidis, and by Archimandrite Nikodimos Farmakis, director of the Ecclesiastical Central Finance Service of the Church.
The original article: belongs to Balkan Insight .
