Gonna change my job title to "Senior Analyst for Random-Ass Countries with Too Many Consonants No One has Ever Heard of"

This is a neutral framing. @JasminMuj on the other cherry-picks parties to construct a narrative. Perhaps someone might consider that "tendentious".

Too early to tell what the next Bosnia-Herzegovina gov't will be but it looks likely to include a broad coalition, SDA-SDP-SNSD-HDZ - which would be likely be able to carry out (needed!) constitutional amendment. If ... they can agree.

For the first time, two of the three members of the Bosnia-Herzegovina presidency will be women - in a region with a reputation for patriarchal norms.

Milorad #Dodik got what he wanted on Sunday. Both his candidates won — for the Republika Srpska and the state-level presidencies — and at the entity level his party (might) finish around five points stronger than in 2022. "Had it not been for Donald #Trump's magnificent victory, we would probably be political dead men today," Dodik told reporters. He thanked Vladimir #Putin [and Benjamin #Netanyahu] for the support, euphorically repeating his aim of dismantling most of 🇧🇦's state-level institutions, and, through a post shared by his daughter, floated himself as the next entity prime minister. In my reaction for the @FinancialTimes I made three quick points: Dodik was the night's biggest "winner"; his aims must be taken seriously rather than dismissed as bluster; and the "Christians vs Muslims" narrative he uses to court Western right-wing circles is dangerous. The next four years will be a major test for 🇧🇦's constitutional order [and if current trends continue: for peace itself]. This goes beyond 🇧🇦. With elections looming in 🇮🇱, the 🇺🇸 and several key European states, friends of the Balkans need to take all of this into account, and act. 🔗 ft.com/content/4ab13290-5208…

Now here's a commendable first 👇 One of the most educated and charismatic younger leaders of the anti-Vučić opposition doing something virtually unheard of: (a) publicly showing empathy toward SNS voters, (b) sincerely trying to understand why they vote the way they do, and (c) openly recognizing that legitimate socioeconomic concerns, along with other fundamentally honourable motives, lead people to vote for SNS. What's still missing, are at least two things: (1) A frank admission that the practices he denounces are RAMPANT not only in the countries the Serbian opposition likes to look down on, but also in those it admires without good reason (looking at you, Croatia).* (2) A serious reckoning with the politically and morally bankrupt idea of the state as a supposedly neutral referee of the "rules of the game" and nothing more. That idea still drives much of the moralistic and fundamentally anti-democratic criticism of the government for profiting electorally from social policies that benefit broad swaths of Serbian society. The sooner the opposition realizes there is nothing inherently illiberal or authoritarian about a STATE THAT PROVIDES, the better, both for Serbia--and for the opposition's own electoral prospects. Still, kudos to @srdjancvijic One small step for him, perhaps, but potentially a giant leap for opposition-kind. Judging by the comments under his post, though, I wouldn't bet on it just yet. ------- * Just to be on the safe side, a note for the deliberately obtuse: the comparison does NOT make the objectionable practice of "vote buying" (let's call it that) acceptable just because it isn't unique to Serbia. What it does, though, is make the intensity of the fury aimed at the "regime" as its alleged culprit disproportionate, unreasonable and most likely self-defeating and futile.

The moment when the costs of servicing your country’s 120 percent of GDP of debt are spiking is maybe not the time to burn down your school to make the point your school doesn’t have enough money.

1/ Ima nešto o delu SNS glasača šta tek nedavno počeo da razumem. Mnogi glasaju za SNS jer su pošteni. Ne vole SNS. Ne veruju Vučiću. Znaju za njihovu korupciju i lopovluk. Ipak kažu: „Moramo za njih.“ Zašto? 🧵

He’s not wrong!

RT @ZovkoEU: Na Nacionalni dan borbe protiv nasilja nad ženama prisjećamo se triju žena ubijenih 22. rujna 1999. na Općinskom sudu u Zagreb…

Very good and important observation! Not a new problem but unquestionably far worse now.

Have candidates with 5/6 discourage votes in a straw poll nonetheless been elected SG? I ask you @RichardGowan1

Actually the BHRC report was flimsy, didn’t take into account publicly known facts and reporting & instead went on a lot of what seemed like it was told by the Ombudsman. I did a breakdown here: bronwynjones.substack.com/p/… and btw I have worked at ICTY on Kosovo.