Searching for Change

Time to Act

Moldova's post-election political crisis has taken a dramatic turn. At the eleventh hour, the pro-European, reforming ACUM block struck a deal to form a new government with the pro-Russian Socialist Party, PSRM. Immediately, the Democratic Party, PDM, of oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, struck back, using its control of the Constitutional Court to declare that the new government had been formed after deadlines had passed, suspend the president, and call a new election.

The move by the PDM leadership is tantamount to a coup and has plunged the country into a new crisis. In his comment for Balkan Insight, Andras Toth-Czifra argues that the current government is the best chance Moldova has had in a decade of returning to the reforming, Europeanising path it sought in the 2009 'Twitter Revolution'. For this to happen, European engagement of the kind seen in North Macedonia is needed, yet crucially, according to Toth-Czifra, European officials need to stop seeing Moldovan politics purely through the geopolitical prism.

Read more: In Moldovan Crisis, an Opportunity for EU to Act (June 12, 2019)

Going Nowhere

A general view of steam rising from thermal power plant in Tuzla. Photo: EPA-EFE/FEHIM DEMIR

Politicians in Bosnia - as well as other countries of the region - have a penchant for announcing major energy and infrastructure projects, particularly in the run up to elections. Indeed, at the level of ideas and announcements, their creativity seems to know no limits.

However, implementation remains a whole different problem, as the case of Bosnia shows. Often, energy projects do not even get off the ground. Even worse, those that do get off the ground, such as the Vranduk...