Week in Review: Bad Deals and Scandals

Blowing the lid Momcilo Marjanovic with other security men from the ruling party during an altercation with protesters outside the SNS offices in Novi Sad, October 2025. Screenshot: YouTube/Jordan Creek. Less than two weeks before parliamentary elections in Serbia, the public got a rare glimpse inside the workings of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party machine. In an exclusive interview for BIRN, Momcilo Marjanovic, an insider, revealed the workings of the party’s “security” machine. Marjanovic discusses the ins and outs of vote buying, how party thugs are deployed to intimidate voters and protesters, or defend party offices, as well as how provocateurs are planted inside opposition protests. He also describes how public funds are used to pay for this special apparatus. Read more: Insider Blows Lid on Serbian Ruling Party’s Use of Hired Thugs (October 14, 2026) Wrong assumptions An unknown man seizes a student campaign poster from a Serbian student movement activist in Visegrad in September 2026. Photo: N1. Bosnia’s general elections have passed, but the country – or part of it – is still embroiled in another election: Serbia’s parliamentary elections on October 25. Unlike the Bosnian Croats, for whom seats are reserved in the Croatian parliament, Bosnian Serbs with Serbian citizenship can vote in Serbia’s elections but have no reserved seats. Nevertheless, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party is working hard to recruit voters among Bosnia’s Serbs in a sign of how much it thinks each vote will matter. At times, this has sparked resentment in Serbia and concerns that the party may be trying to rig the election’s outcome. In his opinion piece for Balkan Insight, Mladen Bubonjic cautions that not all Bosnian Serbs support the party and its leader, however. Read more: In Republika Srpska, Don’t Assume All Serbs Support Vucic (October 12, 2026) Rough deal EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen with Milojko Spajic, the prime minister of EU membership frontrunner Montenegro in Podgorica, October 2026. Photo: EPA/BORIS PEJOVIC. As the EU seeks to reinvigorate the process of enlargement, it seems to be looking for ways to reassure existing member states that enlargement should not be feared. As part of this effort, the European Commission released its new pre-enlargement package on October 6. Unfortunately for EU hopefuls, there is plenty to cause concern in the EU’s current thinking. Among other things, as Gjeraqina Tuhina argues in her monthly Letter from Brussels, is a safeguard clause that would place incoming members under probationary monitoring for no less than 15 years. Read more: Letter from Brussels: EU’s 15-Year ‘Probation’ Plan is an Unfair Deal for Balkan States (October 13, 2026) Coalition-building A voter looks at paper ballots at a polling station during the general election in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4 October 2026. Photo: EPA/NIDAL SALJIC. The votes in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s recent general election were not even fully counted before political leaders were embarking on post-election power-sharing negotiations. For a country where government formation and coalition-building is usually a protracted process, this was an unusual sight. Our analysis looks at the winners and losers of the recent elections. We also attempt to shed light on future governing coalitions, likely stumbling blocks, and what key demands may lie behind those closed negotiating doors. Read more: Bosnia’s New Government was Being Built as Votes Were Still Being Counted (October 14, 2026) Unwanted exposure Illustration: Igor Vujcic/BIRN. A sex scandal of sorts has been rocking Albania since the end of September. Video footage is circulating online and on social media featuring well-known actresses and singers, allegedly filmed in secret at the studio of an influential composer said to have the power to shape – or sink – careers. In her opinion piece for Balkan Insight, Vasilika Laci takes a look at the scandal and what it reveals about Albania. Rather than being seen as victims, many of the women caught up in the tapes find themselves the subject of moralising judgements. Read more: Sex Tapes Scandal Shows Albania’s Still Stuck in Patriarchal Mindset (October 14, 2026) Short of space Filing cabinets pack the corridors of Court of Appeals in Tirana. Photo: BIRN/Xhemali Moku. Albania’s judicial reform – in particular the vetting process intended to weed out corrupt judges and prosecutors – has drawn much attention over the last decade; the investigation and prosecution of high-profile public figures perhaps even more. But while the focus has been on the people comprising the country’s judicial system, less attention has been paid to the physical infrastructure underpinning it. Our analysis looks at how Albania’s courts are struggling with dilapidated buildings and a lack of space. Read more: Buried in Case Files, Lacking Security: Albania’s Courts Struggle in Dilapidated Buildings (October 13, 2026)