Miodrag Lekic’s Demos is on the verge of splitting apart. A group of party officials, led by Anka Vukicevic, Srdjan Pavicevic, Sead Sadikovic and Zoran Miljanic threatened to leave the party if its clerical radicalisation continued, Pobjeda learns from the sources close to the party.
The reason for the officials’ discontent was the decision of the Podgorica Demos’s leader Goran Radonjic’s decision to invite a Serbian Orthodox Church’s priest to consecrate the premises of the party in Podgorica.
That action bothered the Montenegrin-oriented faction in the party led by MP from Niksic Anka Vukicevic, who believes that such an act is not appropriate for a civil party and that is rather characteristic for conservative, right-wing parties. Radonjic, who used to be New Serb Democracy (NOVA) member, called on the decision of the Podgorica Demos executive committee which was adopted by vast majority votes at its session.
Then a group of party officials organised an urgent meeting with Miodrag Lekic and required Radonjic’s resignation, which the Demos leader refused.
“There were harsh criticism against Radonjic and Danilovic at the meeting, but Lekic rather rudely refused the request for dismissal, which further alienated Vukicevic from the party leader,” Pobjeda’s source said.
According to the source, a split within Demos is a realistic option.
“Splitting Demos to pro-Serb and pro-Montenegrin part is more than realistic option given the fact that the Montenegrin fraction in the party, led by Anka Vukicevic, Srdjan Pavicevic, Sead Sadikovic Zeljko Rolovic and Zoran Miljanic do not see themselves in the same party with radical and clerical circles, personified by Radonjic,” the source said.
However, this was not an end of divisions in Demos, bearing in mind that conceptual differences between the two key party figures, Lekic and Danilovic, have recently emerged. They were particularly obvious when it comes to the issues of running in the local elections in Herceg Novi and the position on the Democratic Front’s “alternative parliament’s session” held in Murino.
Danilovic advocated forming the triple coalition with the Socialist People’s Party (SNP) and DF, as it was the case in Niksic, whereas Lekic was for boycotting the elections, avoiding stronger alliance with Andrija Mandic and Nebojsa Medojevic. He is in bad personal relations with the DF leaders, after the split in the political alliance, the source said.
“A last-minute decision to run in the Herceg Novi local elections independently was made contrary to political logic shortly before the deadline to submit candidate lists expired, thus reducing the chance of success. The fact that Demos has not submitted a full list of 34 councillor candidates, but only 29 of them, proves that the decision was made in the last minute,” the source said, adding that raising question of Lekic’s resignation is not ruled out in the case of failure in the local elections.
Differences between Danilovic and Lekic were visible in the case of going to Murino session. Danilovic advocated attending it, whereas Lekic called the session “inappropriate” in a Demos’s press release.
“The fate of Demos as a single entity will be known after the elections in Herceg Novi,” the Pobjeda’s source concluded.
Demos official Goran Danilovic told Pobjeda there was no disagreement between him and the leader of Demos on any issue, including the one related to attending the Murino session.
“There is no disagreement between me and Lekic,” Danilovic briefly said.
