A girl passes by a vandalized campaign poster featuring Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic with the slogan: "Strongly against corruption," Belgrade, Serbia, March 15, 2014 (AP photo by Darko Vojinovic).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series on the impact of corruption and various countries’ efforts to combat it. Last week, Serbian police arrested 49 people, including officials from several government ministries and state-run businesses, on allegations of corruption, as part of a larger anti-graft campaign. In an email interview, Petrus C. van Duyne, a professor emeritus at Tilburg University, discussed Serbia’s fight against corruption. WPR: How big a problem is corruption, both low- and government-level, in Serbia, and to the degree it is one, how does it manifest itself in daily life? Petrus C. van […]

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk leaves parliament after his resignation, Kiev, April 14, 2016 (AP photo by Efrem Lukatsky).

Earlier this month, in a nonbinding referendum, Dutch voters firmly rejected a treaty that would establish closer ties between the European Union and Ukraine. The Netherlands currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, and for Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a supporter of the treaty, the vote was a clear rebuke. The Netherlands, like many other countries across Europe, is in the midst of a populist backlash against European integration in general. Referendum voters also expressed discontent with migration and economic regulation, echoing sentiments held everywhere from France to Hungary. But the referendum also reflected discontent with Ukraine itself. More than two […]

Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic at a press conference, Belgrade, Jan. 14, 2016 (AP photo by Darko Vojinovic).

BELGRADE, Serbia—Growing fears about the unmooring of the Western Balkans from its European path; the prime minster himself warning that the region remains a powder keg; concerns over malign Kremlin influence and gains made by pro-Russian hard-right parties; allegations of rising authoritarianism and corruption in government circles; and claims of double-dealing among a fragmented and fractious opposition. This is the atmosphere in which Serbia’s parliamentary election this Sunday, April 24, is taking place. The ruling pro-European Union Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) looks assured of topping the poll, the third Serbia has had in four years. The snap election was called […]

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte casts his vote in a referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement, The Hague, Netherlands, April 6, 2016 (AP photo by Peter Dejong).

AMSTERDAM — Last week, voters in the Netherlands sent a gift to Russian President Vladimir Putin along with a punch in the gut to the people of Ukraine. That was the impact felt in Moscow and Kiev from a nonbinding but politically potent referendum in which Dutch voters soundly rejected a European Union treaty forging closer bonds between the EU and Ukraine. The outcome of the referendum on the EU Association Agreement for Ukraine would have been surprising under almost any circumstances, but it was particularly disconcerting given the dramatic, tragic role the Netherlands has played in the ongoing confrontation […]

Czech President Milos Zeman and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, at the Prague Castle, Czech Republic, March 29, 2016 (AP photo by Petr David Josek).

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Czech Republic, where he signed more than 30 deals worth nearly $4 billion. In an email interview, Richard Turcsanyi, the deputy director of the Institute for Asian Studies, Bratislava, discussed Chinese investment in Central and Eastern Europe. WPR: How extensive is Chinese investment in Central and Eastern Europe, and what factors are driving China’s investment strategy there? Richard Turcsanyi: To begin with, it is extremely difficult to establish unequivocally the amount of investments from one country in another’s economy. Various statistical sources notoriously show differences. Putting together the numbers from a range […]

Prime Minister Robert Fico and the chairmen of four Slovak political parties after signing the coalition agreement, Bratislava, Slovakia, March 22, 2016 (Czech News Agency Photo by Martin Mikula via AP).

Slovakia’s coalition government, made up of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s center-left Smer-Social Democracy party, the nationalist Slovak National Party and two other parties, was sworn in late last month following parliamentary elections that left Fico without an outright majority. In an email interview, Sean Hanley, senior lecturer in comparative Central and East European politics at the University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, discusses Slovakia’s elections and prospects for the coalition government. WPR: What explains the electoral shifts in the latest election, including declining support for Prime Minister Robert Fico’s center-left Smer-Social Democracy Party and increased support […]