Good morning! Instead of these days talking about all the world leaders coming to Tivat, instead of each of us in society being given the task of animating part of the public in a given EU country, of turning ourselves toward the world, toward a society and community of 500 million people, we have focused on Aleksandar Vucic, decorated the country with banners bearing his name, and burdened ourselves with the fact that he is not letting us enter Serbia. Do we even have the strength to reach beyond Belgrade? And if we don’t, then what the hell did we “secede from Serbia” for?
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What has Vucic managed to achieve, consciously or unconsciously?
If the goal was for the whole of Montenegro to talk only about him, he has succeeded. We’ve all had our fun with Vucic while the leaders of the world’s most powerful economic bloc are visiting our country. But it’s no use for the whole world to flock to Montenegro if, on the other side, there are Lepa Brena, Vucic, and Ceca. It’s no use for the whole world to open its doors to us as long as Jodzir is reporting from Belgrade Waterfront. Whatever our opinion of Vucic may be, we do have one. We have no opinions about Merz, Macron, Meloni, and the others. Except for a few foreign-policy and Euro-enthusiasts, nobody knows what is happening in those countries, yet we all know when every local election in Serbia is held. We know when every turbo-folk star, lets one rip, if you’ll excuse the expression, but we don’t know what EU membership actually brings us.
Serbia dominates our media space, and this is visible at every step. Vucic was received only by Serbian media, including Vijesti, which is majority-owned by a company from Serbia. Montenegrin media did not go to greet him. Nobody knows what questions to ask other world leaders. Only Jelena Jovanovic has an inexhaustible supply of Sky transcripts to question Vucic with. Instead of asking him about Luka Bojovic—if she is already dealing with organised crime—or about Kobac and the Red Berets from Montenegro, she agreed with Vucic that only cartel soldiers are in Serbia, while the brains are in Montenegro. Lucky us, with such “brains.”
EU or no EU, it’s all in vain if we don’t learn to look beyond Belgrade, if our culture and academia continue to revolve around the sun in Belgrade. But this is not only our ailment. Croatia still suffers from the same illness. Turbo-folk dominates nightclubs, and Croatian nationalists are still fighting an enemy that the Croatian Army defeated in 1995. Even Croats, who are about 15 years ahead of us, who have gotten over Yugoslavia, who are better in sport and economy than any version of Yugoslavia, still worry about what is happening in Serbian politics and what missiles Vucic has bought.
So, what is left for the rest of us?
These are all things we should reflect on. Because EU membership and everything that comes with it is useless if we continue, by instinct, to look toward a city that is no longer our capital.
That’s all for today and for this week. See you again on Monday.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
(Columnists’ opinions and views do not necessarily reflect those of the CdM editorial staff)
