Analysis

Elsewhere in emerging Europe

prishtina, kosovo

A selection 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.

While proclaiming themselves to be committed Europeans, leaders of the governing Social Democrats (PSD) have been bashing Brussels like never before in the run-up to May’s European parliamentary election.

Full story here.

Lulzim Basha, the head of the main opposition Democratic Party of Albania, has accused the European Commission of being too lenient with the country’s government “for the sake of stability”.

Full story here.

North Macedonia’s outgoing president, Gjorge Ivanov, is refusing to ratify recently adopted laws that use the country’s new name. If ratification continues to be postponed, it may harm the country’s chances of getting a date set for its EU accession talks to open in June.

Full story here.

Turks are flocking to Istanbul’s first art exhibition of Armenian filmmaker Sergei Parajanov.

Full story here.

Bucharest’s Giulesti stadium had almost fallen to pieces before the bulldozers showed up – but many Romanians will still mourn its disappearance.

Full story here.

Is Kosovo’s capital Prishtina the ugliest capital city in Europe? Europe’s youngest capital challenges the notions of what it means to be beautiful, says the BBC.

Full story here.

The Versailles of Belarus. The Daily Beast goes inside the inimaginable tale of a ruined palace, meddlesome aristocrats, and a Jewish industrial dynasty.

Full story here.

Antanas Sutkus’s Planet Lithuania, published last November by Steidl, gathers over 200 images taken between 1959 and 1991. Sutkus has been celebrated in Lithuania since the 1960s, and is now well recognised in Europe.

Full story here.

Veterans of Latvia’s World War II-era Waffen SS wing and their supporters marched through the capital Riga on Saturday in a controversial demonstration to commemorate their fallen comrades. March 16, known as Legionnaire Day, has attracted criticism at home and abroad by those who say the events glorify Nazism.

Full story here.