Articles by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica

About Vladimir Unkovski-Korica

Vladimir Unkovski-Korica is a member of Marks21 in Serbia. He is a historian and researcher who is currently Lecturer in Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow. His upcoming book entitled “The Economic Struggle for Power in Tito’s Yugoslavia: From World War II to Non-Alignment” will be released soon.
October 18, 2019

Between opportunity and opportunism: Vetevendosje! on verge of power after Kosovo elections

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Albin Kurti’s party won the 6thOctober poll, but whether they will provide a clean break with the last 30 years in Kosovo remains to be seen, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica. Kosovo’s recent election was close. According to final preliminary results, Levizja Vetevendosje! (Movement Self-Determination!) beat the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) by fewer than 6,000 votes. Vetevendosje got 25.5 percent of the vote, while the LDK had 24.8 percent. The vote for both parties was a vote for change, which has been ruled for some time by parties that emerged from the Kosovo Liberation Army. The Democratic Party of Ko ..

October 10, 2019

Disgraceful and dangerous: European Parliament equates Communism with Fascism

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

By voting to distort history, MEPs are legitimating fascism and imperialism, argues LeftEast editor Vladimir Unkovski-Korica in an article initially published on Counterfire. On 18thSeptember this year, the European Parliament passed aresolutionentitled ‘On the Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe’, by 545 votes to 66. The resolution is summed up by the claim that the Second World War ‘was started as an immediate result of the notorious Nazi-Soviet Treaty on Non-Aggression of 23 August 1939…whereby two totalitarian regimes that shared the goal of world conquest divided Europe into t ..

January 4, 2019

Mass protests across Europe show that a new politics is on the horizon

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Note from LeftEast editors: We repost this article in collaboration with Counterfire where it was originally published on 29th of December 2018. ‘No Christmas for the bourgeoisie!’ declared graffiti on a wall in Paris as the Gilets Jaunes protests electrified Europe since their first protest on 17 November. Even before the series of French protests had begun, and hardly mentioned in Western media outlets, demonstrations had spread across thirty cities and towns against similar fuel-related measures in Bulgaria starting on 11 November. But they too started wearing yellow vests which had become the visual cha ..

October 1, 2018

Defeat for EU and NATO expansion: the failed referendum in Macedonia

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

The failed referendum in the small Balkan state represents a major upset for the West, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica The 30 September 2018 was a disaster for the EU and NATO in the Balkans. The vast majority of the electorate of Macedonia boycotted a referendum that asked: ‘Are you in favour of membership in NATO and the European Union by accepting the deal between the Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Greece?’ At the time of writing, the state electoral commission expected the final turnout to be between 36 and 37 percent, significantly below the 50 percent required to make the result valid. Half an ho ..

August 10, 2018

Tensions in the Balkans: is Serbia preparing to recognise Kosovo?

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

The Serbian President’s rhetoric since July 2017 has been suggestive of a compromise deal – but, argues Vladimir Unkovski-Korica, the future is still uncertain.   Last week, Kosovo’s authorities failed to publish their promised draft statute for the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) i.e. for the several tens of thousands of Serbs concentrated in north Kosovo on the border with Serbia. This was meant to be a key milestone in the so-called ‘normalisation’ of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but there is now renewed scepticism about the future. In reality, though, the latest setback is just one o ..

March 13, 2018

Belgrade’s Municipal Elections: A Class Analysis of the Vote

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Belgrade held regular municipal elections on Sunday 4 March. These were the first municipal elections since the mass protests against the Belgrade waterfront project in spring 2016. As such, they were a major test for the conservative Aleksandar Vučić regime since his presidential re-election in 2017. The regime understood the dangers posed by a potential opposition breakthrough, and poured major resources into the municipal election. Serbian President Vučić increasingly distanced himself from the discredited and outgoing mayor, Siniša Mali, and made the election a referendum on himself personally. His party ..

February 20, 2017

The Trump Effect in the Balkans: Serbia’s third election in four years?

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Serbia faces a set of regular presidential elections this year – but also the prospect of its third parliamentary election in four years. The latter possibility confirms those analyses that have posited the instability of Serbian politics in spite of the appearance of stability, following the ruling coalition winning almost half the votes cast in both previous elections. Serbia after Milošević: Between West and East From the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000 to the presidential elections of 2012, Serbian politics was primarily divided geopolitically. Serbia’s governments predominantly took the form of ..

June 7, 2016

The pain goes on: Greece and the European Union (EU)

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

As the UK’s referendum on the European Union approaches, Greek workers are facing more pain from Greece’s European creditors The Eurozone last week pushed Greece to accept more austerity in exchange for a loan of 7.5 billion euros to pay off the country’s debt. This comes less than a year after Greece was promised debt relief following a bailout worth 86 billion euros last summer. No debt relief deal is in sight, however. Even the IMF, normally a keen proponent of balanced budgets, argued austerity was only making matters worse in Greece. But the Eurozone, led by Germany and the Netherlands, rejected an ..

May 22, 2016

The courage of conviction: why a tactical ‘remain’ vote makes no sense

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Counterfire (May 19, 2016) Vladimir Unkovski-Korica points out the glaring contradictions in Paul Mason’s argument to boycott the EU referendum. In his Guardian column, Paul Mason made a principled case for Brexit, only to argue that it should be ignored at the forthcoming referendum on pragmatic grounds. Mason contends that Brexit now would leave Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, two neoliberal fundamentalists, best placed to profit from the political fallout. But he provides no evidence for this argument – and indeed the substance of his argument runs against his conclusions. It may be the case that the d ..

April 27, 2016

Serbia’s election outcome: More of the same or worse?

by Vladimir Unkovski-Korica  

Serbia held early parliamentary elections on 24 April 2016, the second set of early elections in just over two years. Serbian premier and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), Aleksandar Vučić, appears to have believed that, with the opposition in disarray, and his own popularity still sky high, he could win an even more resounding victory than on 16 March 2014. The election result, with 98.56% of votes counted, has dashed Vučić’s hopes. Percentage-wise, he almost succeeded, with the coalition around his SNS winning 48.23% of the vote, just short of the 48.35% two years ago. Votes-wise, Vuči ..