Tunisia
Tunisia's 2027 draft budget projects 49.6 billion dinars in tax revenue, up 4.7 percent, or 2.215 billion dinars, from the 2026 forecast. Tax revenue is expected to make up 91.4 percent of budget receipts: indirect taxes are projected at 28.69 billion dinars, including 13.223 billion in VAT, and direct taxes at 20.91 billion, including 14.404 billion in income tax. The oil-price assumption behind the budget rises to 80 dollars a barrel, from the 63.3 dollars assumed for 2026.
Tunisia's foreign minister Mohamed Ali Nafti took part on October 25 in a tripartite meeting in Algiers with his Algerian and Egyptian counterparts, Ahmed Attaf and Badr Abdelatty, on supporting a comprehensive political solution to the crisis in Libya. The three countries said they are working, under the United Nations' auspices, to bring Libyan parties toward dialogue and consensus, and to preserve the country's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity along with its natural resources.
Equipment and Housing Minister Salah Zouari said on Monday that the new Bizerte bridge's second and main section, built by Chinese firms, will now be finished by summer 2028, after foundation problems delayed a date previously set for 2027. The total project costs 750 million dinars, with 610 million for the Chinese-built section. Zouari said the foundation work, which required raising the number of piles from 16 to 24, is now fully complete. Liu Xiaobo, head of the Chinese group Sichuan Corporate, said his company would speed up work to meet the new deadline.
Economy and Planning Minister Samir Abdelhafidh said on Monday that Tunisia's new cooperation framework with the United Nations, covering 2027 to 2031, closely matches the country's own development plan and will be signed soon. Speaking at a meeting in Tunis marking UN Day, which this year falls on the organisation's 81st anniversary and Tunisia's 70th year of membership, Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti named three priorities for the framework: human capital and social inclusion, inclusive economic transformation and decent job creation, and the ecological transition and resource security. The UN's resident coordinator in Tunisia, Rana Taha, said the organisation would work to make its own programmes more coherent and transparent.
Europe
Aleksandar Vučić, who resigned as Serbia's president on 27 September to run instead for the premiership as his party's leader, conceded in the early hours of October 26 that his ruling Serbian Progressive Party had lost the snap election he himself called. The student-backed "Student List" surged on record turnout; it grew out of two years of protests over corruption linked to the 2024 Novi Sad railway station canopy collapse that killed 16 people, and fielded doctors, teachers and former athletes rather than career politicians. The defeat closes off the route back to power Vučić chose when he quit the presidency.
Source:
Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
Bulgaria's incumbent president Iliana Yotova led with 35-36.5 percent in Sunday's presidential vote, according to exit polls, narrowly ahead of banker Andrey Gyurov on about 32 percent. Neither reached an outright majority, so a runoff will be held on November 1. The campaign was dominated by Russia's war on Ukraine and by security concerns after drone attacks on commercial ships off Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, alongside rising energy prices and inflation.
Source:
Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
Marine Le Pen launched her 2027 presidential campaign on October 25 in Orléans, a city she described as under siege from unrest, pledging to "restore the rule of law" after her own conviction for misusing EU parliamentary funds. The launch fell on the same weekend that nearly 2,400 people were arrested in protests across France, reinforcing her message of a country coming apart. Le Pen is appealing the conviction, which would bar her from running, and her National Rally party is preparing for her to stand regardless.
Source:
Euronews · Sunday, 25 October 2026
