From politics to the media business, high expectations often go hand-in-hand with disappointments big and small, as our selection of Balkan Insight Premium stories this week shows.

Polish President Andrzej Duda (L) and President-elect Karol Nawrocki (R) meet at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, 03 June 2025. EPA-EFE/Pawel Supernak Nawrocki’s Victory May Prove ...

North Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning and advised its citizens in Israel and Iran to follow national emergency portals there and follow the instructions of these countries ...

Our selection of Premium stories this week takes a look at the region’s slow-burning political crises, smuggling networks, digital surveillance and a whole lot more.

A court in North Macedonia issued life sentences to four defendants for the killing of a teenage girl and a retired barber who were kidnapped in an attempt to secure a ransom in 2023.

Police have arrested 18 people following an attack on a prominent pro-government student in Belgrade who was pelted with water bottles at a university campus – which President Vucic called a ...

In a statement responding to this recording, Giertych speculated there might be another reason why the right-wing media published the material now. “As for the timing of publication, I think it ...

Remains believed to belong to three members of a Bosniak family killed in 1992 after they fled to Montenegro to escape the war in Bosnia have been exhumed in the city of Niksic.

A move to turn the site of the former Spac labour camp in northern Albania into a film set has revived calls for better protection of what’s left of Albania’s dark communist past.

Hungary’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that will enable the suspension of the citizenship of those whose “conduct constitutes a threat to public order, public security or national ...

Forest fire on Chios island, Greece, 22 June 2025. Photo: EPA-EFE/KOSTAS KOURGIAS. Greek Holiday Islands Caught in Wildfires Eleni Stamatoukou Athens BIRN June 23, 202512:03 Eleni Stamatoukou ...

Croatia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Ivan Anusic, presented the new Law on Service in the Armed Forces, restoring obligatory military service, to the public on Wednesday.