Politics by country

"With the strength I have derived from affection, I have spent my whole political life to serve our nation. I became Mayor of Istanbul, Prime Minister and President of Türkiye, but I have never given up this quest, this determination,"President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on May 19.

Türkiye's Supreme Election Board on May 19 confirmed the results of the first round of Türkiye's presidential election in which neither incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan nor his main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, receiving the majority support needed for an outright victory.

The Turkish presidential election result was a blow to Turkey, to Greece, to the broader region and to democracy as a whole. While the rule in democracy is that we respect the will of the people, democracy's enduring weakness is that it contributes to its own undoing.

Two opinion polls published just hours before an election silence kicks in put New Democracy ahead of main opposition SYRIZA by 6.5 and 5 percentage points, respectively.

A Pulse poll for SKAI gave New Democracy a 6.5-point lead over SYRIZA while an MRB poll for OPEN TV put conservatives 5 points ahead.

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Friday the responsibility to stop Pristina's PM Albin Kurti from causing war and conflicts and making provocations was now upon the international community.

The citizens will decide the fate of the country for the next four years, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said, in his last interview ahead of Sunday's general election.

Someone once said that "if you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else." That's where SYRIZA finds itself right now, mired between governments of winners, losers, "special purpose" and anything else that may crop up by July.

Greece heads for what is likely to be an inconclusive parliamentary election on Sunday, paving the way for wrangling between parties to forge a ruling coalition in a deeply divided political landscape.

As Greeks prepare to cast their vote in general elections on Sunday, none of the likely alliances that had been discussed in previous weeks between different parties appears feasible, making a runoff that much more likely.

The Kosovo-Serbia dialogue remains one of the main issues of concern in the Western Balkans, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday heard.

State Department Counsellor Derek Chollet warned: "We are not seeing great effort on the implementation of this agreement by either party."