iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bandić’s HDZ bandits and the way it’s run by the current administration is very visibly different, so it’s not a given that things cannot change. (they can change for the worse as well, just look at Macedonia…)

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The Balkans are an extremely complicated area for politics and always have been, and more people than elsewhere certainly think that way, call it generalisation or disillusion, but I can certainly see where it comes from. This said, the way that (for example) Zagreb was previously run by the

I mean - Milanović is not HDZ, yet somehow he often manages to be a worse tool than they are…

Oh, it is acknowledged by most, but HDZ has been very skilled at building a familistic network that resists dismantling and actively boycotts alternatives. Add to that the fact the their opponents are not exactly irresistible either, and the grip on (most of) the country is rather easily explained.

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Much as it pains me to say it, I believe the only two parties fitting that definition today would be the ruling FdI party (which turned from fascist to full-on establishment right at this point) and FI (late Berlusconi’s), which remains a more traditional center-right party with low competence.

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Russia during the early phases of Covid. Not many doubts about their leanings, although their MPs are all around the place and their electorate probably doesn’t care much about the matter, being far more attracted to the line that no money should be spent for UA (so they can pocket more subsidies).

Yep. They compete for votes with the Democratic Party (which is obviously in a very sorry shape though), but positioning and support has been pretty much stable for years now. Not to forget: when their current leader was the prime minister of the country, he accepted the dispatch of “doctors” from

That’s what M5S used to be, but today they turned into a western-skeptical, establishment party with a very geographically and socially defined electorate (poor people in the southern half of the country, ie net beneficiaries of tax transfers). The gusto for Russia didn’t change, though.

Alex @alessio.re · 11/08/2026

I am always surprised when Anglo-Saxons apply their moral judgments about races to the rest of the world. It we exclude Romas (that’s an ugly, but completely separate story), non-white people in Hungary are 1%. How’s the skin tone of the new president something even worth mentioning?

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Alex @alessio.re · 07/08/2026

One of my favourite players for the bashing game is Dodik, though. He’s really hard to beat: www.politika.rs/sr/clanak/76...

politika.rs

Dodik: Republika Srpska neće glasati na referendumu o pristupanju EU

Republika Srpska neće glasati na referendumu o pristupanju EU

Alex @alessio.re · 05/08/2026

The EU is responsible also when a little penguin drowns in Antarctica, so why not in NS, which is only some 50 km away.

Alex @alessio.re · 05/08/2026

Of course. But they were easy to sell internally, which it seems is the one objective of the movement, in pure populist style. As if pandering to conservatives would be the way to move the country forward after the last 15 years.

Alex @alessio.re · 05/08/2026

And just like that, the students decided to out-Vučić themselves and demonstrate that everything is a dead-end in today’s Serbia. Good analysis, although everything mentioned had been self-evident for a long time now, well before the May declaration.

serbianmonitor.com

Is pointing out the flaws of the student movement permitted?

By Fahrudin Kladničanin, an NGO activist from Novi Pazar The problem is not that students do not have an opinion on everything, but that they have decided to have no opinion whatsoever on certain issu...

Alex @alessio.re · 17/07/2026

Worked quite alright for Armenia after 2018 though, if you’d consider that a color revolution - that one didn’t have any foreign backing though.

Makes sense, because regardless of one’s position on the matter it’s obvious to anybody with a brain that the matter is settled and has been for a long time. Until that becomes a public and mainstream position, though…

Of course, but that would hardly be something that flies under the radar the same way a maritime border agreement does. Gotta change the minds of people first, and it doesn’t look like anybody is in a hurry to do that - far easier to just say the problem is only Vučić and his cronies.

Especially not as long as the kids share so many of the views of their parents, and especially the perception that it’s the whole world against them. As it Vučić hadn’t for years fed people exactly what they already wanted to hear. If there were less corruption, the streets would be very silent.

Of course, Kosovo is a much harder blocker to any possible EU accession than the alphabet of signs in Vukovar or some crap about the Homeland War and a couple of parades, so it is hard to see how it would work the same way.

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To me it reads more like “the opposition will still feed the electorate bullshit about Kosovo, but in fact have a saner policy”. There’s a comparable precedent: that’s how HDZ has been behaving in Croatia for most of its history, which has worked quite well for them: controlled bs + EU compliance.

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“I must stress that this does not mean SRB is fully controlled by Moscow. What it means is that the Serbian and Russian regimes frequently identify the same people and groups as enemies: pro-European and democratic actors, independent journalists, civil society members, students, anti-war Russians”

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Yeah, they might dislike SNS but they don’t see a realistic alternative, so they have no hunger to walk a different path.

It is, but honestly I don’t consider the movement to have (at least thus far) the political skills that would lead to this kind of “smart” play. I might be mistaken.

Politically that makes sense, of course. Here I am mostly referring to players such as the student movement.

The one thing I will always fail to understand is why anybody would have expectations for the EU to steer the accession, rather than simply facilitate it and evaluate it. And then, should anything heavier handed be done, the complaints about foreign interference multiply. Do or don’t, be damned.

Yeah, that one made me giggle. 😄

Alex @alessio.re · 03/05/2026

Idgaf about how it’s reported in the US. But life is too short to spend time with pro-Russian trolls who resort to insults. Blocked. Bye.

Alex @alessio.re · 03/05/2026

Criticism -> “The harshest punishment is reserved for organized criminal groups, as well as for individuals whose actions caused serious harm to the health or lives of the victims. For such criminals, the law is uncompromising: they face five to eight years of imprisonment.” Try again.

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Alex @alessio.re · 03/05/2026

Nah, that wouldn’t fit the narrative.

Hurting innocent civilians. Got it.

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That’s exactly why it’s not a black and white situation. Damaging a dual use facility can be a war crime on paper in specific cases, but it’s almost impossible to prove. As for basic morality, are you seriously implying that attempting to damage the economy of the country invading yours is immoral?

Except it’s not, unless there are widespread civilian casualties. It sits in the grey area at worst.

Alex @alessio.re · 20/04/2026

Our voting mechanism is a goddamn mess.

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Not only the euro, but Schengen as well. The UK wouldn’t have any treatment of favour this time around.

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Alex @alessio.re · 01/04/2026

That doesn’t sound like something Trump would be especially concerned about. The possible leverage is far bigger than that.

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Alex @alessio.re · 23/02/2026

Ah, the war has ended meanwhile? I hadn’t noticed.

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Alex @alessio.re · 12/02/2026

Voting for Milanović is seen as some sort of low-risk protest vote (because the president’s power is next to zero), but it’s beyond me what flies in the heads of those who keep on having this weird split ticket, which is arguably the worst of both worlds.

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Alex @alessio.re · 12/02/2026

Every single time I begin to forget that Milanović exists, he comes out and shows what a tool he is.

croatiaweek.com

Croatian president backs Georgia’s territorial integrity during landmark visit

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Alex @alessio.re · 04/02/2026

It’s arguably the first chance they have since the beginning of the war, and they are certainly not missing it. The previous 3 winters were extremely mild so they didn’t have a chance to commit this sort of crimes.

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Alex @alessio.re · 04/02/2026

American labour laws have always made no sense to me. There’s no reason anybody should be able to be fired point blank, with zero advance notice, saved for cases of gross misdemeanour.

Alex @alessio.re · 27/01/2026

Agreed, but precise numbers matter. In 2025, excluding HU+SK (as they are obviously on the other side), the EU gave Ukraine about 40/50bn, depending on what we include, and paid Russia about 15bn for fossil fuels. Still suboptimal, of course, but a far cry from 2022.

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Alex @alessio.re · 19/01/2026

China’s been consistently liquidating its US debt positions for quite a few years now.

Alex @alessio.re · 19/01/2026

In what cases would you see the anti-coercion tool fit for usage?

Alex @alessio.re · 14/01/2026

Interesting take on Montenegro, and one I agree with. I see a 2030/2032 entrance of Albania as far less controversial though, even if it is (and will be) far from ready because of corruption.