Good morning! After several years of tensions and political earthquakes, majority of citizens have reached the feeling of being fed up with politics. Although on the one hand it is good, because there is no fuss and panic, on the other hand it is bad because disappointment sedates dissatisfaction and kills critical awareness by feeding indifference and apathy.
Click here to join our Viber group, where we update you live from hour to hour and answer your questions directly.
Noxious boredom of Montenegro’s politics
I don’t know how it goes, but I have the feeling that numerous foreign diplomats who were initially happy with their terms in Montenegro, guided by the prejudice that problems are small in small countries, only after a few months spent here, suddenly sobered up because of the politics that were hyperpolarized, tense and constantly on the edge of conflict.
That’s how it was for the last couple of years, after the big change of government in 2020. Constant tensions, constant choices, influences of all sorts. Transnational organized crime, Chinese, Russians, NATO membership. Middle and Far East. Crypto enthusiasts and demi-monde gamblers. Too much happening in too little space.
Montenegro as Monaco. Marinas, expensive villas and expensive yachts, the world’s jet set. And politicians are always hungry for fame and money.
But we are saved. Diplomats can rest.
The long-awaited political stability has happened, and we are slowly returning to the blissful isolation of the Belgrade province. What Tirana is to Wallonia, Budva is to Belgrade. Organized criminal groups, led from Belgrade, are starting to spread across our coast again. Like Knele once on St. Stefan.
Instead of tourists from all over the world, excursions from Serbian and Bosnian-Serb cities return to us. Medical, legal and Kragujevac events. The only thing left for us is to bring back workers’ sports games and payment in dried meat products. Velika Plana. For the workers’ winter storage. It will be useful with these new prices. Half board at Slovenska for two polonies.
Tourism has become popular, and politics has also become popular. Politics is increasingly becoming the exclusive fiefdom of politicians. Only those who expect something from politicians are engaged in it, and that is a narrow circle of people, who are satisfied with the most mundane quid pro quo trade. You give me 450 EVros per month, I give you the votes of me and my family. We are ready for anything for a sinecure and a good place next to the budget cauldron.
Take the Podgorica elections, for example. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that fewer and fewer people care who will win the elections. If I’m right and my gut feeling isn’t deceiving me, the low turnout will show it best.
People are tired of politicians. I think that no normal person has an iota of respect for ministers, MPs, mayors, municipal and state secretaries, directors or party officials. And it’s no wonder. Is there anyone in Montenegro who has not been in some of these positions in the last four years.
Elections are held every now and then because this is how the tension is maintained among those circles closest to the cauldron or trough. Those who do not feed on it, are less likely to be deceived by this or that identity story. Despite the fact that the problem actually exists and that Serbia is constantly standing over our heads. We have realized that there are no serious people who are willing and able to deal with serious state problems. Politicians are overburdened with satisfying their personal basic needs. Some want to preserve their positions, while others want to get them. Not to change Montenegro and make everyone’s life better, but to provide a regular source of income for themselves and those closest to them. Or several sorts of income.
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 authors of the columns are not necessarily those of CdM)
