Southeast Europe

The ruling Georgian Dream party won Georgia’s 2024 parliamentary elections by engaging in election manipulation, adopting the classical illiberal-authoritarian playbook. The EU must now insist on an independent investigation.

On September 20, 2024, a group dressed in Serbian nationalist clothing entered KROKODIL's office, removed the Ukrainian flag and intimidated the staff. KROKODIL, a literary organization and partner of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, is facing increasing attacks on civil society in Serbia. We herewith express our solidarity and continuous support for KROKODIL.

The Rio Tinto controversy in Serbia revolves around the planned Jadar lithium mine. Despite economic benefits, strong opposition arises due to environmental concerns such as water shortages and pollution. Local protesters demand more environmental protection.

Serbian memory politics obscures the reasons for the NATO intervention, which strengthens Vučić's power. He presents himself as a defender of the fatherland, despite contradictions with reality.

This article discusses the potential of a feminist approach to climate justice and feminist foreign and development policy. The authors, Gina Cortés Valderrama and Katy Wiese, argue that feminist perspectives are unabdingbar in addressing economic rights, energy transition, and climate-related damages and losses.

In December 2023, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev surprisingly announced snap presidential elections. Accordingly, Azerbaijani voters will go to the polls on February 7th. These elections signal one thing: the consolidation of authoritarian power.

Corrupt politicians have been systematically plundering public budgets and natural resources in the Western Balkans for years. Increasingly, international actors are also discovering an El Dorado for dubious investments in these countries.

Under the umbrella of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), thirteen journalists, press freedom, and civil society organizations are calling the EU institutes and the governments of member states to impose greater transparency on the media and their relations with political decision-makers and economic players.

On April 19, 1943, Jews condemned to death in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up in an unprecedented heroic struggle against the German occupation. The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the ghetto uprising is approaching. Joanna Maria Stolarek, director of the Warsaw office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation spoke with Zygmunt Stępiński, director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN in Warsaw about the commemoration, the nature of remembrance, and the universal message that the uprising and its commemoration bring.

After Armenia's defeat in the war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, foreign and security policy developments in the small South Caucasian republic are happening at an unprecedented pace.