Week of 16 November 2020
BULGARIA: On Tuesday, Bulgaria vetoed the start of the EU–North Macedonia accession talks. Bulgaria was the only state to vote against the accession and its decision was widely described as surprising, given the long history of relatively friendly relations between the two countries. The Bulgarian government said that it did not believe North Macedonia was ‘ready’ to join the EU, but did not elaborate further. This setback will certainly cause further delays in an accession process that was already predicted to be long and difficult – North Macedonia even had to change its own name in order to apply for membership – and will frustrate the EU’s intention to strengthen its influence in the Western Balkans.
ETHIOPIA: Ethiopia is edging closer and closer to civil war. The clashes between Ethiopia’s government, led by PM Abiy Ahmed, and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have already caused hundreds of civilian casualties. Most concerningly, the hostilities appear to have spilled beyond the border with Eritrea, with the TPLF firing rockets into Eritrean territory. Several international observers and foreign governments have called for an immediate truce, but the ethnic tensions within Ethiopia continue to escalate.
GREECE: On Sunday, Greek authorities announced the remarkable discovery of a bust of the god Hermes in central Athens, near the church of Agia Irini. The bust (of which the head is the only extant part) is datable to c.300 BC and was likely first used as a street marker, but was built into the wall of a drainage duct later in antiquity. The finding potentially sheds new light on how ancient statues were reused as construction material in ancient times.
MEXICO: On Thursday, the Mexican Senate has approved a bill to legalise recreational marijuana in a landslide 82–18 vote. The bill will now be considered by the Congress’s lower House. Under the new law, Mexicans would be able to carry up to 28 grams of marijuana and grow four plants. The new legislation aims to curb drug trafficking; in fact, it would make Mexico not only the world’s third country to legalise marijuana (after Uruguay and Canada), but also the first with a vast ‘underworld’ relying on drug trade.
