Perhaps, Montenegro has never gone back to 1918 as in 2022, the year during which Serbia – a neighbor and wartime ally – first occupied the Montenegrin state, and then erased it from the geographical map. At the time, just like today, Montenegrin citizens voted for it. At the same time, then, as now, in that obscure and for Montenegro tragic game the so-called great powers took part in it – for which, a century later, some of them officially apologized.
“That the Great Powers will do something is a phrase used to deceive our fellow citizens, who are convinced that, after all, some moral Great Power is watching over the fate of the world. How the Great Powers arrange things is well known. We need to flip through the old calendars,” Miroslav Krleza wrote back in 1943.
Flipping through the old calendars obviously doesn’t help. Nor hope in the morality of the great powers.
It all depends on the citizens of Montenegro, notes the country’s President, Milo Djukanovic, in a New Year’s interview for Pobjeda daily.
Asked what he’d remember 2020 for, the President said: “On a global level, I’ll remember 2022 as the year when a new war in Europe started, undermining the international order created after the WWII, international law and seriously threatening Europe’s security. In Montenegro – the collapse of values that we had painstakingly built as pioneers during fourteen years of post-referendum development. It was done thanks to ignorance and bad intentions of the two governments which fell during 2022. Montenegro, once a country of exemplary stability, dynamic development, decent political culture and appreciated reform achievements, today is an example of instability, dysfunctionality and lack of perspective”,
Commenting on the West’s impact on destructive decisions of the government it itself backed in August 2020 and its powerlessness, Mr Djukanovic said: “The Western allies send a response to that question every day, so we need to learn to read it carefully.”
And their response is “simple and logical: you, the Montenegrin people, elected government for yourselves; you have the right to change it whenever you sufficiently want to do it. Don’t be mad at us. And don’t blame us for that. As partners and important factors of European and international politics, we had the right to think that in Montenegro, after thirty years of the rule of one bloc, it’s time to test the achieved quality of democratic development with a change of power. Because you’re part of European culture, including political culture. If we made an oversight, as, for example, in the case of the SPC which we perceived as religious, not a political, nationalist, aggressively imperialist organization – it happens. Don’t expect us to debate that now. Not even to cover ourselves with ashes. Because, after all, the decision was yours.”
On the amendments to the President Law and whether he could spot some changes in the attitude of the West towards the sovereign bloc and himself, President Djukanovic said: “Following the demonstration of irresponsibility and legal and political violence concerning the President Law, I think that the West is now perfectly clear with the fact that such a change of government in Montenegro won’t bring benefits to society and improve our partnership relations. Maybe the change you are talking about is looming, but it won’t depend on my – and I am convinced -the behavior of the actors of state-responsible pro-European politics in our country. I represent my political views based on my convictions. Sometimes they were not in agreement with the policy of the Western partners, which is logical. After all, no one knows us better than ourselves.”
Having in mind that he signed the unconstitutional President Law, reiterating that he wouldn’t take part in its application, asked whether he expected a new government, including the Bosniak Part and a part of the Albanian bloc, to be formed until 20 January, President Djukanovic noted: “I’ve already explained why I signed the unconstitutional President Law: because it’s stipulated by the Constitution. After that, the Constitution gives the right, not to the President, but to the Constitutional Court, to assess constitutionality of that act. Therefore, I don’t want to be a part of a violent campaign carried out by irresponsible people against both the Constitution and the state.”
He continued: “The parliamentary majority is on the road of no return, which was paved for them by the Democratic Front. Precisely, on the road of no return organized by their mentors from Belgrade and Moscow. It’s why I expect the worst of them. However, I don’t expect representatives of the minority nations to take part in it, as it’d be a political shame for them.
Mr Djukanovic concluded that the only way for Montenegro to return to the European course are parliamentary elections. Without delay.
