Crisis in the Balkans – but Europe turns a blind eye

Opposition MPS covered in blood; a mob “closing in on them like a pack of wolves”: once again, the tiny Balkan republic of Macedonia (pop. 2.1 million) has hit world headlines, said Erwan Fouéré in Balkan Insight (Belgrade). Hard to believe this is an EU candidate country ruled by a party (whose nationalism appeals to ethnic Macedonians) linked to the European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament. Yet it’s a party whose leader, Nikola Gruevski, refuses to cede power to an alliance of social democrats and minority ethnic Albanians, even though they can form a majority government and he can’t. When the opposition scored a rare success last week by electing one of their own as speaker, it was Gruevski and his MPS who let the nationalist mob into parliament. What followed was appalling even by Balkan standards, said Benoît Vitkine in Le Monde (Paris). Security forces stood by as the mob surged in and hurled chairs. Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev, face and shirt soaked with blood, was seen being protected by other injured deputies.

Until recently, Macedonia was a “poster child of the EU’S transformative power”, said Dimitar Bechev on Al Jazeera.com (Doha). Against the odds, it survived the conflicts that ripped apart nearby Bosnia and Kosovo, managing to remain a multiethnic democracy, albeit “fragile and dysfunctional”. It even applied to join Nato and the EU. But the “Europeanisation” project ground to a halt, partly because Greece vetoed its application. (It objects to the use of the name Macedonia, since much of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia lies in northern Greece.) So Macedonia’s politicians, never much interested in pursuing European values, quickly reverted to the old ways. In the past two years, the country has morphed into a one-party state marked by typical Balkan “kitsch nationalism”: downtown Skopje has been transformed into a “historical theme park”. Gruevski’s party is now so engulfed in corruption and abuse of power scandals that he dare not stand down, for fear of being indicted by a special prosecutor and ending up behind bars like Croatia’s erstwhile PM, Ivo Sanader.

As usual, Europe is “sleepwalking” through this new crisis, said Adelheid Wölfl in Der Standard (Vienna). Its inaction sends a “devastating” signal to politicians elsewhere in the region, who see that European leaders can now be counted on to turn a blind eye to their resort to intimidation and curbs on freedoms. In almost his last act before leaving office, Barack Obama had slapped sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik for his anti-democratic behaviour, but Brussels lamentably failed to follow suit. And now that Donald Trump is in office, not even the US is willing to help keep democracy alive in the Balkans.