Calls Grow to Reopen Kosovo’s Divided Bridge

At Mitrovica’s bridge, freedom halts. A structure meant to unite is now a scar of division, a quiet indictment of Europe’s failure to reconcile its periphery.

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, remains one of the most triumphant moments in modern history, a day when the world bore witness to the unyielding power of human resilience and the collective yearning for freedom. In that instant, as Berliners tore down the concrete barrier that had divided them for nearly three decades, the symbolism was unmistakable: division was giving way to unity, oppression to liberation. The images of that day were broadcast across the globe, cementing the Wall’s collapse as a definitive end to the Cold War and a harbinger of democracy’s ascendancy.

Thirty-five years later, Europe remains haunted by echoes of division in unexpected corners. In Mitrovica, Kosovo, a bridge stands as a potent reminder that the continent’s aspirations for unity remain incomplete. The Mitrovica Bridge, or the Ibër Bridge as it is locally known, straddles the river that divides the city into a predominantly Albanian south and a Serb-majority north. Yet, far from being …