Environmental Protection Agency

A man in Pristina votes at a polling station in the early parliamentary elections on October 6, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

The decision came hours after the Constitutional Court ruled that Avdullah Hoti's current coalition government was illegitimate because it was voted into office with the help of an invalid vote cast by an MP with a criminal conviction.

They broke through the police cordon in front of the main stairs at the entrance and enter the parliament building.

Kosovo's Acting President Vjosa Osmani. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

In September 2020, the presidents of Kosovo and Serbia, Avdullah Hoti and Aleksandar Vucic, signed agreements at the White House on mainly economic issues in the presence of President Donald Trump. The agreements were signed separately by Kosovo and Serbia with the US, not with each other.

That said, there's plenty of time for spin, scandal and scheming to change the course. "It will be interesting to see how Ano's marketers will camouflage Babis's failures in leadership," Otto Eibl, an assistant professor in political science at Masaryk University, told BIRN.

The world over, the empty terraces of the COVID-19 era have brought many football clubs to the brink of financial collapse. Dinamo, already indebted, is among them. 

Protests around the world at times cast a shadow over the pandemic.
Even during epidemic crises, citizens elected new government officials, which led to mass demonstrations in some countries, and from January 2020 to January 2021, the world was hit by several terrorist attacks and killings.

BIRN presents its selection of photos of some of the events and processes that marked a difficult year.

Battle Goes on With Deadly Virus

A medical worker wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) attends a patient at the Covid-19 hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, 18 December 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/MARKO DJOKOVIC.

Dealing With COVID-19

A doctor prepares the medical equipment in a hostipal in Chisinau, Moldova, April 1, 2020. Photo: EPA/Doru Dumitru

A poster in Pristina in July 2020 describing Thaci and Veseli as heroes. Photo: EPA-EFE/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.

As in the rest of the EU, health workers, politicians and civil society leaders trying to dispel popular distrust of vaccines were chosen to take the first jabs in symbolic ceremonies designed to kickstart national vaccination campaigns across the region.