Our weekly digest of articles about emerging Europe published elsewhere this week, all of which caught our eye and all of which are well worth your time. Listing them here, however, does not necessarily mean that we agree with every word, nor do they necessarily reflect Emerging Europe’s editorial policy.
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Coal miners wary of a greener future
The EU faces immense challenges in greening the economies of the bloc’s coal-intensive regions — something that is key to Ursula von der Leyen’s promised European Green Deal. Poland, citing the huge costs involved, is balking at agreeing to become climate neutral by 2050. Other countries like Romania — which have agreed to the mid-century goal — also face major disruption.
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Pro-Kremlin narratives and challenges to Slovakia’s information sovereignty
Slovak cultural and educational institutions are long-established and supposedly apolitical. However, some legitimise and promote pro-Kremlin narratives. Free speech risks being undermined by an anti-Western counter-culture anchored in the political and intellectual environments of Slovakia.
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Albania earthquake: Arrests over deaths in collapsed buildings
Nine people have been arrested in Albania on suspicion of murder and abuse of power over the collapse of buildings in last month’s earthquake. Two of those arrested on murder charges owned hotels that collapsed in the city of Durres, one of the areas worst hit.
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Hungarian government seizes control of private fertility clinics
Hungary is taking over privately-owned fertility clinics, deepening the control exercised by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government over citizens’ private sphere and the country’s economy.
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Gaffes blight Croatia president’s fight for new term
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic seemed a shoo-in for a second term as Croatia’s president — before she started campaigning for it.
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Biggest Polish bazaar for Germans reinvents itself
The biggest Polish shopping market for Germans along the border hasn’t lost any of its pull for hundreds of thousands of people since it opened in the early 1990s. DW’s Hardy Graupner joined a busload of eager shoppers.
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Christians are persecuted in many places. Autocrats exploit this
Helping illegal immigrants in Hungary can get you imprisoned for a year, and being a Jehovah’s Witness in Russia can get you tortured. Christianity’s loudest defenders are not very Christian.
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Georgia’s giant dumpling born from conquest
Like many Georgian foods, khinkali are not originally from the country. But tracing where, exactly, their story began means confronting some powerful national myths.
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