This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum might be interested in. Feel free to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.
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Notes -
Serbia
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has called for snap elections on December 17, the third in three years (did you know the Prime Minister of Serbia was a gay women?). The Serbian Progressive Party has been in power since 2012 but has been reeling from back to back mass shootings in May, which led the government to pursue a huge crack down on guns, despite having some of the highest per capita gun ownership in the world. Mass protests against the violence coupled with opposition pressure led SNS to assent to new elections. They are hoping to emphasize their role in supporting ethnic Serbs in the ongoing conflict in Kosovo.
It’s unclear how things will actually go. In the 2022 election Vučić won the Presidency (ostensibly a ceremonial position, less so under him) with 60% of the vote but his party went from holding a supermajority to being a slight minority, though they stayed in power via coalitioning with the right wing Serbian Patriotic Alliance.
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