Good morning! Montenegrin airports are available. Not to citizens of Montenegro, not to tourists, not to large European or global companies. They are available – to Serbia.
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Airport Capitulation
A few days ago, Sinisa Mali came out with a statement full of confidence: Serbia is interested in taking our two international airports under concession. Aleksandar Vucic immediately tightened the leash, called the ambassador from Podgorica, and raised the issue to a higher level.
And in Montenegro – a classic scenario. The commission that was preparing the concession tender – has fallen apart. Members are resigning, complaining about political pressure. Everything smells like things are being rushed in order to serve the airports to Belgrade.
The same Belgrade that gave its own airport under concession to the French, but that doesn’t stop it from demanding to command ours.
DF – the local franchise of SNS – reluctantly accepts the idea. Everything that comes from Belgrade comes as an order for them. Does the same apply to PES?
In order to better understand this moment, we must remember how we got here. The decimation of Montenegro Airlines – a politically motivated shutdown without a plan. Air Montenegro – a company taken over by people without vision, without capacity, without results.
Montenegro has been reduced to a fifth-class airline destination that can only be reached via winding mountain roads. If we were Nepal, that would be enough. Minister Gorcevic talks a lot in a show when she explains why Tirana got the office of the European Parliament instead of us – because we can’t be reached.
In Serbia, the protest energy is on the ground. Kurti made Vucic irrelevant in Kosovo. In Bosnia, he would prefer to sacrifice Dodik, but he cannot. And now attention turns to Montenegro – known for having a government that would give up its own house for a handful of money and power.
Can we ask ourselves: will the Montenegrin public react to this arrangement as they reacted to the contract with the UAE for Long Beach? Or is Serbian state investment a balm for us, and only Arab money stinks?
Didn’t we talk about this and warn about this? Serbia will not stop at the dismissal of the DPS, giving them ownership of churches and cemeteries, giving in to them regarding the entry of the DF into power?
Serbia will not calm down until it completely covers us and makes Montenegro its province. I am not talking about Serbia as a country, but as a state apparatus. An expansionist and nationalist state that would command the regional order.
If we allow this to happen, we’re no longer talking about the state of Montenegro. We’re talking about a provisional entity. A rent-a-runway. A territory with a seasonal identity, ripe for the picking by any passing crow.
I think that this is the last red line and that, if this plan comes to fruition, after that, there could very easily be a destabilisation of the political scene that has not been seen since 2020. If PES agrees to this game, or has already agreed, it will really be a decisive move for them, which will trigger the final self-destruction.
After the missed opportunity to distance themselves from these, the Bosniak Party can now finally be defined as an accomplice in the complete surrender and betrayal of the interests of Montenegro by all constituents of the parliamentary majority.
After all, the question arises – on what basis are we progressing on our way to the EU? On the basis of servility to Serbia? Are we getting credit for Vucic’s suffering?
That’s it for today and this week. See you again on Monday.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ opinions and views are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
