Central & Eastern Europe Archive

Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, and his right-wing Fidesz party incurred significant losses in local elections earlier this month, as opposition candidates won control in 11 of the country’s 23 major cities, unseating several Fidesz-backed incumbents. In an email interview with WPR, Péter Krekó, executive director of Political Capital, a Budapest-based policy research and consulting institute, explains how opposition parties were able to notch so many wins against Fidesz and why, in addition to a setback for his party, the elections were a personal blow for Orban. World Politics Review: What allowed so many opposition candidates to unseat incumbents […]

Was it a populist triumph or a thinly veiled setback? The victory of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party, known as PiS, in parliamentary elections earlier this month has been called both. The verdict should become clearer in the months ahead, as the PiS-dominated government comes to terms with an upper house of parliament that is now narrowly controlled by the opposition Civic Coalition. The first test will come next year, when President Andrzej Duda, who is backed by PiS, faces a potentially tough reelection. PiS can perhaps claim a strong mandate, having retained a majority in the lower house […]

Bosnia and Herzegovina hosted its first Pride parade last month, as LGBT activists and supporters marched in the capital, Sarajevo, amid heavy security. Bosnia is the last country in the Balkans to hold a Pride parade. The march’s success testifies to the strength and capacity of Bosnia’s LGBT activists, says Zorica Mršević, principal research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences in Belgrade, Serbia. In an email interview with WPR, she discusses the recent progress in expanding LGBT rights across the Balkans, and the obstacles going forward. World Politics Review: What is the current state of LGBT rights in Bosnia […]

With every day, a new thread seems to emerge in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, which centers on Trump’s efforts to pressure the government of Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, the former vice president and now Democratic presidential candidate. According to multiple whistleblowers and a released rough transcript of a July 25 phone call, Trump urged his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate Biden. The request put Zelensky in a tough position, caught between his need for American support to fight a war in eastern Ukraine against Russia-backed separatists, and his desire to avoid […]

A left-leaning anti-establishment party scored an upset victory in parliamentary elections in Kosovo last weekend, as voters strongly rebuked the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, which had been in power since the country declared independence in 2008. The left-wing Albanian nationalist Self-Determination Movement, or Vetevendosje, took a plurality of 26 percent, and the more mainstream Democratic League of Kosovo finished a close second. Vetevendosje leader Albin Kurti, a former political dissident, will now try to form a coalition government, but how exactly he will do so is unclear, says Aleksandar Kocic, a Serbian-born journalist and lecturer in journalism […]

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s unique and often unstable tripartite presidency missed its deadline to form part of its national government in early September, almost a year after general elections, amid continued disagreements on whether to proceed with long-in-the-works plans to join NATO. With its leaders deadlocked, the country’s path toward both the Western military alliance and membership in the European Union is as uncertain as ever. Twenty-five years after the end of the brutal war that killed over 100,000 people and left millions displaced, Bosnia’s dysfunctional political system continues to hamper its long recovery. The country is still reliant on international […]