Environmental Protection Agency

Infographic: BIRN

Some of these countries are both importers and exporters of workers. They rely on cheaper workers from Ukraine or the Balkans to fill lower-skilled jobs, often to replace their own citizens who have sought more lucrative jobs in Western Europe - mostly Germany, the United Kingdom or the Netherlands.

Police clash with protesters during a protest in Sofia on September 2, 2020, the day PM Boyko Borissov's cabinet agreed on a new draft of the constitution. Photo: EPA-EFE/Borislav Troshev

Serbs no longer go in for eerie "penetrating wails" as much as they did, but, as with Firmilian's death over a century ago, Patriarch Irinej's death last Friday is an event of much more than religious significance - which explains the three days of state mourning and telegrams from the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This information was placed by the local media, although it was not confirmed by the organizers, so that the Grand Slam in Melbourne could be held in March or April.
Djokovic was surprised when a British journalist connected the Australian Open and vaccination. The journalist said that the vaccine would be needed in April.

The slump is real. Gross Domestic Product, GDP, for the region as a whole is forecast to decline 4.8 per cent. Roughly 139,000 jobs were lost between January and June, while 300,000 people have been driven into poverty.

An additional organisational hurdle is having to swiftly transform hospitals wards that were not designed to treat infections into COVID-19 centres.

Doctors say this results in bad conditions in hospitals, with complaints ranging from disregard for safety protocols to lack of equipment and having to pay steep prices for essential medicines that should come at the state's expense.

The presidents of the opposition parties - including the liberal Democratic Coalition, the Socialists, the young emerging Momentum, the leftist-liberal Dialogue, the greenish LMP and the former radical rightist Jobbik - have agreed to nominate only one candidate in each of the 106 individual constituencies.

Back in Focus?

French President Emmanuel Macron reviews an honor guard on the deck of the assault ship Dixmude docked in the French Navy base of Toulon, 19 January 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE/Claude Paris / POOL MAXPPP OUT

What explains this shift, from being the region that initially had among the fewest cases in Europe, to a surge?

Some country-specific reasons might explain individual cases, such as recent elections in Serbia and North Macedonia, or the government crisis in Kosovo, or protests in Montenegro and Serbia. However, none provides an overarching regional perspective.