The article is written by President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović.
Montenegro had several turning points in its glorious history that have determined its destiny in different epochs. As a rule, they took place in difficult times, followed by conflicts, with great suffering and casualties. Among the historical Montenegrin borders, 21 May 2006 was an exception. For the first time in a thousand-year history, we achieved the highest goal, such as the renewal of the state, in a peaceful democratic way.
CORRECTING HISTORICAL INJUSTICE
It was the most beautiful beginning of modern civil Montenegro. An unprecedented case, not only in Montenegro, but also in the history of the Balkan peoples. This corrected a great historical injustice, and traced our European and Euro-Atlantic path. The best choice for all our citizens. It has been confirmed by the time in the decade and a half and showed that we have enough knowledge, loyalty, determination and commitment to achieve the desired future. Just as a man best manages his destiny if he is mature and independent, so do states decide on their future only if they are sovereign.
The idea of an independent Montenegro in 2006, as well as the idea of a free Montenegro in 1941, united in a great movement those who inherit the same values. An independent state was not only the dream of Montenegrins, but also of all other nations in Montenegro: Bosniaks, Albanians, Muslims, Croats… and Serbs who were ready to resist the common-sense pressure of self-proclaimed political protectors of their national interests. All together they did not want a state of nations or a national state. They wanted civil Montenegro, as a multiethnic democracy based on the European value system.
DIVISIONS
Unfortunately, on 21 May 2006, as a century earlier, we were followed by a fatal division, generated always by the same delusion of national and religious segregation, self-sufficiency, isolation from cultural and civilizational differences. There was distrust in the ability of Montenegrin and Balkan society to tolerate and nurture the richness of diversity as its current civilizational legitimacy. In fact, it is a kind of inferior recognition of one’s own unwillingness and inability to respect the right to diversity of others. That is why these skeptics feel better in national and religious bans. The bigger the better.
Some were attracted by the European quality of life, with a clear awareness that it is achieved only after the responsibility for managing Europe’s future is in our hands – in independent and sovereign Montenegro.
Others saw security and perspective in Pan-Slavism and Orthodoxy, in a monoethnic and monotheistic fraternity, where they would continue to feed on myths, deceive themselves with their heavenly qualities, be angry at the cosmic injustice that prevents them from preserving what they have won in wars and hope to rebuild the iron curtain, behind which it will again play a role of importance, clashing with Europe of which we are an integral part. Therefore, essentially, some were for a civil state and a multiethnic society, others for a national, supposedly historical, Petrović’s, and in fact a theocratic state led by someone else’s national interest, which would be controlled by one religious community. So, some thought about the future, others were inspired by the medieval past.
FAIT ACCOMPLI SCENARIO AVOIDED
Thanks to different global circumstances, but also to Montenegrin political skills, in which I especially include the Belgrade Agreement, this time we avoided the fait accompli scenario and the danger of deciding on Montenegro outside Montenegro, although even then equality was not ensured for the two opposing ideas. The terms of the referendum imposed by the EU stipulated that proponents of independence had to win at least 55% of the votes of the participants in the referendum. We agreed to this unjust formula and won with the participation of 86.5% of adult citizens of Montenegro.
WHEN FIGURES SPEAK
In answer to the question of what we have done in the years after the restoration of the statehood, I will list only some major achievements, which, I believe, are unquestionable. We have strengthened the economic sustainability of Montenegro, free from grants and subsidized mentality that insulted our state and civic dignity, which prevented us from defining our national interests independently. On this basis, conceived in the early 1990s, with a clear vision of economic and democratic development, we have provided continuous dynamic economic growth that has created a realistic basis for a significant improvement in living standards. In the year of the referendum, the citizen of Montenegro enjoyed only 36% of the living standard of the citizens of the EU. At the end of 2019, that percentage increased to 50%. In 13 years, Montenegro has coped with 14 difficult steps. Is it even necessary to say that this is the best achievement among the countries of the region? Certainly, the most convincing is the response of official EU statistics to political accusations that locusts have eaten 15 years of independence. And the submarine power cable, the completion of the most difficult and most expensive highway section, Porto Montenegro, Porto Novi, Luštica, ski centers in the north, numerous high-category hotels and the new profile of Montenegro as an attractive tourist and investment destination speak better of the constructions about Montenegro as a “scorched country”.
STABILITY CONDITIONS
In the period behind us, we have strengthened the stability of Montenegro and its multiethnic and multi-religious harmony. This foundation proved to be reliable even in the latest post-election temptations and provocations. Based on the solid foundations of the experience of the preserved peace of the early 1990s and the avoided bombing and police-military conflict of ’99, I would say that we have re-evaluated some traditional Montenegrin stereotypes. In today’s Montenegro, the pedestal of values is not heroic death, but a peaceful and happy life. The responsibility of citizens to preserve the peace and stability of the state as a framework for their own freedom and prosperity has also grown. Thanks to economic sustainability, we defended the right to develop Montenegro as a civil state. It is not difficult to prove that it would have been impossible if life in the state union had been extended, or worse, if Montenegro had been subsidized from anyone’s funds outside of it.
And finally, we have returned Montenegro to our European home. We have resolutely been on the path of adopting the European value system and made progress that qualified us for membership in NATO, the most powerful political and military alliance in the history of mankind.
Also, with the opening of all negotiation chapters, Montenegro has significantly advanced ahead of other candidates for EU membership. I have no dilemma if and when the EU emerges from its strategic dilemmas and returns to the idea of European unification, Montenegro will be its first next member. Even without that, thanks to regional cooperation, NATO partnership and progress towards the EU, Montenegro has secured high respect in the international community.
LOOK TO THE FUTURE
For a better future of our state and society, we need more than anything the wisdom of management that will lead to overcoming inherited divisions and greater homogenization and optimization of human resources. The previous 15 years had not been a sufficient time frame for this.In particular, they were not an optimal environment, bearing in mind that we lived through almost continuous crises in Europe: economic and financial, refugee, Brexit, then Covid-19…
I will not be mistaken if I say that we have lived and that we are living the most serious crisis of the EU’s identity.
We will need much more designed, in-depth efforts of a consistent state policy in the field of education, culture, information, science, relations with young people in order to more successfully and reliably strengthen the identity awareness in Montenegro. First of all, awareness of state identity as a condition for the survival, stability and European prosperity of Montenegro. And within that, about the Montenegrin national, cultural and religious identity. Because it is the epicenter of nationalist attacks on Montenegro. Eradicating awareness of it would achieve the goal of the policy that prepared a new dungeon for Montenegro – instead of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes there would be the Serbian World. When there are no national Montenegrins, there is no need for the state of Montenegro. The responsibility for that is on everyone. On the national Montenegrins first of all.
WORLD AND US
Success in this not at all easy mission will not depend only on us. It will largely depend on the geopolitical outcome in Europe and on the global stage. If the EU remains passive in the Western Balkans, it will further encourage anti-European, nationalist, big-state policies, and all the opponents of Europe to strengthen destruction in the Western Balkans. The question facing the EU today is whether it wants to take responsibility for peace and stability in the Western Balkans, as a European region. Or, as before, it will leave the initiative to others, to its opponents, who use the Western Balkans as an access field for perfecting their hybrid repertoire against Europe.
Despite all the challenges, I believe that we have a much better future ahead of us. Over the past decade and a half, in the background of all kinds of problems, identities and other battles and challenges, a new Montenegro of generationally different interests and habits and more modern thinking has matured, democratically more mature, for the first time in history with a model of government cohabitation. Generations that were children, pupils or students in 2006 have grown up. Today, they have acquired the right to decide on the fate of Montenegro and to regulate it according to their views and needs.
Soon, Montenegro will be only theirs. It is very important that we all understand this as soon as possible.
With the optimism that those who could not vote in the referendum instill in me with their attitude towards Montenegro, I am looking at the time ahead of us.
We are witnesses of their sincere feeling and concern for Montenegrin values, for the preservation of a civil and democratic, European Montenegro. Such their attitude towards the state speaks best of what we have achieved in the past 15 years, and about the strength of the foundations of our restored state, able to respond to the challenges of internal turmoil and uncertainty in a regional and global context.
