Good morning! Last night, the Prime Minister appeared before the press and announced that the census would be postponed to Sunday. He, the parliamentary majority and the opposition should be praised for their willingness to make concessions and have dialogue. No matter how well the census is technically conducted, no matter how good the intentions of political actors are, the atmosphere in which it will be conducted is not regular but extraordinary.
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Census – Exemplary consensus
Unpopular opinion – it’s good that they agreed. The opposition and the ruling majority have shown maturity. The optimistic and de-escalating tones from the Prime Minister’s press conference last night were followed by the excellent impressions of MP Vukovic and MP Lakovic from the meeting with European parliamentarians. If in the coming period we are resistant to provocations, to those that mainly come from outside, and if discrimination and abuse of institutions are not allowed, it is possible for us to become the next member of the EU.
What should be feared now are the maximalist demands of both sides of the political polarization in Montenegro. Neither will be fulfilled. There are those who have good intentions, and who think that in this way they will protect the interests of their community. On the other hand, there are those who do not like the current political distribution, so they would like to overturn the table. Be that as it may, whoever is not in favour of dialogue at this moment is working against the interests of Montenegro. They should be aware of that.
That is why the opposition, whose base of support is rightly in spasm, should be praised above all. DPS and SD took an unpopular step, but they obtained concessions from the government and stopped what was the shameful intention of Abazovic and Vucic’s pawns in Montenegro. On the other hand, we should also praise Spajic, who sacrificed his popularity with his base, but gave a serious pledge to close a very important issue, which had the potential to stir up tensions in society again. Particular interests did not win and prevail, which means that there are no losers either.
The census itself and its results are another story. It is promising that they will be held while Vucic made fun of his misery by persecuting the opposition and critics before the elections in Serbia. He will not have so much attention and resources to devote himself seriously to wandering around Montenegro. Perhaps this is the reason why the agreement was reached in the first place in Montenegro.
In public, we often talk about Russian and Serbian influence and external influence that aims to destabilize Montenegro, focusing more often on the open action through their influence on close political and social entities who openly support Serbia and Russia. However, one should pay attention to the modus operandi of their influence operations in other countries and conclude that the interest of the one who causes destabilization is not the dominance of one or the other political pole, but the constant provoking of tensions. Everywhere in the world, Russia tried to influence the ultimate and maximalist demands of both poles by emphasizing them. In this way, the space for discussion and space for meaningful political dialogue is narrowed. When there is no dialogue, the strengthened extreme ideological poles make the political scene unstable and both the whole society and the country become easy prey.
That is why dialogue should always be welcomed and supported, no matter how unpopular it may be.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
