Good morning! The Democrats have lost all sense of their existence as a party, if we exclude bare clientelism as a sense. The Democrats are an empty party shell, which has no ideology, no niche, and will last as long as state and municipal resources last. But the Democrats are not alone, they are just the first in line to be executed. What happens to them is the fate that more or less awaits all the parties in Montenegro.
Don’t forget to join our Viber community where we share information in real time and answer your questions directly. Look for us on this app.
Do Democrats as a party make any sense anymore?
Djordje Zenovic left the Democrats in Budva. One of the younger leaders, who stood out in the past ten years at the local and state levels, mostly trading principles as a value on the political market. Zenovic balanced for a long time and was a shock absorber for other party leaders from this city, such as Krapovic, who managed to discredit himself in a very short time by his actions. The election of Zenovic as the list holder this spring managed to stop the sharp decline of this party, which after the DPS was replaced in 2016, was the strongest party in the new majority.
Today, the Budva Democrats, although they have one very important minister, the director of the National Tourism Organization, and several prominent party officials at the state level, is classified as a small party at the local level. After announcements that Zenovic could form his own list, this may bring the party in Budva to the brink of a census. PES, let’s remember, with an established local list as a partner, won barely two seats, and the Democrats with Zenovic won four. I think that the synergetic potential of these two parties at the local level has a negative value. If they manage to win six seats together, and do not halve the support in Budva, it will be tantamount to a miracle.
PES, however, still draws reserves from its alchemy programme, which produces results from time to time. And because of that, that party still has an identity. Reform identity. A look into the future. They are still exploiting their niche. And they are a relatively fresh product.
The Democrats have been a party for ten years already, and the charisma of Aleksa Becic as a leader has long since vanished. Aleksa has not been refreshing on the political scene for a long time, and that niche of freshness was long ago occupied by others. The Democrats’ story of overcoming divisions and a multi-confessional and civic non-extreme option has fallen flat. Too close ties with the Serbian Orthodox Church alienated civic activists from the coastal municipalities. Arguments and disagreements over the division of the plan have decimated leadership capacities, and the party manages to maintain itself in political life through constant tactics and allocation of state resources. That’s why they wander from partner to partner, from election to election.
They no longer have an ideology or an identity. Ties and uniforms are gone. With the advent of artificial intelligence, generic texts and speeches no longer make sense, if they ever did. Too little interaction, and bizarre marketing trips, made them an example of an impersonal political structure.
The Democrats are not alone in this trajectory. They just lead the way in this category of total political colorlessness. PES will continue to move in this direction as soon as the gold dust of Spajic’s charisma dissipates. And sooner or later this will happen. Because it always happens. URA is almost there. Jakov is now their crutch to prolong their agony. Non-extremism, in general, is in a big crisis. So, is their main media sponsor.
Those who should not worry are the Front members. They have an ideology and time is on their side.
And right now, they don’t have to worry about the independence-supporting opposition. They manage to maintain the temperature and handle a great deal of dissatisfaction. It is very easy for them to surprise in the elections in Podgorica, but we will discuss this in more detail in tomorrow’s text.
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 columnist are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
