Good morning! The media announce that URA will decide today and make an important step out of the crisis; the mayor of Pljevlja expelled himself from the party with his irresponsible statements; Parliament Speaker met with the Ecumenical Patriarch; FCJK under another attack; the priest of the Serbian church manages the University; Budva facing coercive administration.
Moment of truth
I honestly did not believe that URA and Dritan Abazovic have the courage for what was announced last night, but I will be ready to publicly apologize if they completely carry out what they have planned. The minority government, despite all the shortcomings, is an excellent model for overcoming the crisis. And if URA decides to initiate it, it will be a very brave, responsible, and state move.
Abazovic said last week that he had nothing against initiating a vote of confidence in the Government in Parliament, and the SNP is asking for the initiative to be launched by the majority MPs.
The new government would be made up of “everyone except the DF and the DPS”, with the Democrats also excluding themselves from the combination, with sharp criticism of “any agreement with the DPS”.
That is how we will get a government that will consist of URA, SNP, representatives of minority parties, and as far as I understand some of the experts from the current government. But let’s not guess, the details remain to be seen. The SNP needs to make an important decision here, which would give this government the potential to make a contribution to reconciling and overcoming the gap in Montenegro until the new elections.
The case of Igor Golubovic
The mayor of Pljevlja from the ranks of the DPS stirred up the public with his statements about nationalist graffiti in that city. He first said that some of the graffiti would not be removed, and for not removing some that are on public buildings, he justified himself by low temperatures. Also, earlier, Golubovic relativized the threat of Serbian nationalism in Pljevlja by equating Bosniak and Serbian nationalism at a time when scenes from the 1990s, when Bosniaks were victims of war crimes, harassment and maltreatment, were repeated. Party colleagues distanced themselves from Golubovic, he was criticized by the reis of the Islamic Community, Rifat Fejzic, and then by the DPS coalition partners.
Becic in Nicaea
Patriarch Bartholomew, the first among equals in the Orthodox Church, supported the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral of the Orthodox Church of Serbia in Montenegro during his meeting with the Speaker of Montenegrin Parliament, whom he praised for his support of Serbian Metropolitan Joanikije II. The statement does not mention the Serbian Orthodox Church, but the Ecumenical Patriarch, with such unreserved support for the Serbian Church, is chasing away a great deal of the faithful people from Orthodoxy and can give impetus to some new processes in Montenegro.
De-secularization of the University of Montenegro
In a normal society, in a context where a church based in a foreign country does not threaten the independence of the country in which it works and resides, in a context where there is interreligious and interethnic harmony, there would be no problem for a scientist, who is also a priest, to be part of management structures of one university. The priest of Niksic is a Montenegrin citizen with all the same rights as other people in Montenegro. However, he is not a scientist or a scientific worker. He is a theologian from a university that is not part of the Montenegrin scientific community, but from the faculty of the church, which threatens the survival of Montenegro, and of which he is a priest. In the context in which the chancellor of the university is a Serbian nationalist and ideologue of Serbian nationalism in Montenegro, in a context in which the Minister of Education deepens divisions in society with her policies at every step, such a decision is unacceptable and a paradigm of de-secularization of Montenegro which we have been witnessing daily.
Despite PM’s threats, there’s still no highway
My colleague Miras Dusevic reminded us of the Prime Minister’s threats to contractors before the holidays – that the highway had to be open. However, that did not happen. It turned out – one of the reasons for the delay is that Monteput, which is supposed to manage the highway, does not have machines for cleaning the highway. I was delighted to see party cadres from the management structures of that company accusing the former government of such irresponsibility and misconduct 14 months after it had been overthrown.
Another in a series of pressures on FCJK
The court changed the decision and ruled against Adnan Cirgic and Aleksandar Radoman in the dispute and asked them to pay €42,000 to the people who published King Nikola’s novel called Despa after them. Thus, the court ruled that 2009 happened before 2008. You can read more about this in Adnan Cirgic’s reaction.
Budva facing coercive administration
If the Municipal Assembly of Budva does not hold a session of the local parliament by 29 January, that coastal municipality is threatened with the introduction of coercive administration, but also new elections. Although Budva parliament speaker Krsto Radovic says that he will schedule the session, the only thing that is certain is that the DF councilors will attend it. However, the quorum will not be provided by the Right Montenegro, SNP, URA and the Democrats, because they are asking for the resignation of the mayor Marko Carevic. The DF responds that his withdrawal will not happen.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant day and a quick fall of the government.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
