Good morning! URA and the Democrats accuse each other of working for the conflicting clans in Montenegro; SPC priest physically attacked activist Maja Milickovic; JBB was offered to remain a minister; Lavrov was banned from flying over Montenegro; BBC participated in the Serbian appropriation of Montenegrin culture.
After Minister Aleksandar Damjanovic defended Montenegro from Minister Goran Djurovic, Andrej Nikolaidis wrote a column that was among the most read articles on CdM for the weekend – Serbs defend Montenegro.
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Who works for which clan?
On Saturday, I remembered the People for the 21st Century campaign and Dritan and Aleksa passing through the members with torches lit around them. I also remembered the pathetic messages about parents’ tears. It was the reconciliation of Serbs and Albanians before the Open Balkans, before it was modern as it is now.
Joke aside, these guys promised a lot, and if I had not had the experience of Budva in 2016, I might have believed that we got leaders who will, not so much with abilities, but with purity and honesty, help things finally change. Young, without unresolved issues from the past, these two men got an incredible chance – one became the Parliament Speaker, and the other the Prime Minister.
And what is the result, has Montenegro changed after two years of their rule, has Budva changed after 5.6 years of their rule? Have we at least seen the intention to change something?
Their parties have become paradigms of party employment, nepotism, political corruption, and when their mutual conflicts started, we saw a much darker side of each other. From the purity of People for the 21st Century, which was then supported by Rambo Amadeus, we came to two parties that accuse each other of working for the conflicting narco-clans in Montenegro.
Democrats say that there are recordings and transcripts of the Prime Minister’s conversations on the SKY application, and URA answers that Becic was blackmailed and that he works for the Skaljari clan.
We can’t know which of these is true until we deal with it, but these mutual accusations tell us a lot about how disturbed our value system is, and how far we are from normal life, if young leaders immediately after joining politics become thus corrupted and discredited.
Five years in NATO
I remember the campaign for Montenegro’s entry into NATO, and the small number of people who were publicly ready to stand up for it. How many athletes and social activists who took part in the campaign were attacked for writing a text or recording an advertisement for NATO. Some gave in due to pressure. I also remember my two trips to Moscow on the eve of NATO membership in 2017, when I defended Montenegro’s position to join NATO on a propaganda NTV, face to face with some of Putin’s most famous propagandists. Today, the situation is different, surveys show that the percentage of those who are for NATO in Montenegro has undoubtedly increased, and even SNP admits that it was a good decision.
Attack on Maja Milickovic
Yesterday, an incident took place in the Cetinje Monastery, when Maja Milickovic, a civic activist, was physically attacked by a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church near the shrine of St. Peter of Cetinje. Milickovic reported the incident to the police, and priests from the Monastery reported her and her colleagues and friends who attended the incident. All political parties and the PEN Center reacted to the priest’s attack, as well as Metropolitan Mihailo from the CPC. President of the 21. Maj Civic Initiative Cetinje, Nikola Belada, attended the hearing of Milickovic before the Cetinje police, and offered to be her attorney if there is a court procedure.
Borovinic-Bojovic was supposed to stay in this government as well
If Jelena Borovinic Bojovic (JBB) had agreed, she would have been the Minister of Health in this mandate as well, but, if we can believe her, JBB turned out to be more principled than Dritan and all those who would have voted for her.
Abazovic would like to retire Djukanovic
Dritan Abazovic non-stop promises the Serbian media that Djukanovic will retire, and has long promoted the information that Djukanovic’s withdrawal is part of a package on a minority government. Djukanovic and DPS persistently answer that such a decision, if any, will be only Djukanovic’s and no one else’s.
Montenegro sharply against Russia
Ranko Krivokapic takes a very sharp stance towards Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine. The last decision is not to go to the reception to be organized by the ambassador of that country to Montenegro on the occasion of Russia Day, Vladislav Maslenikov, on 9 June, CdM has learned. Also, we made a decision, together with the Bulgarians and Macedonians, not to allow Sergei Lavrov to fly over the country to Belgrade.
BBC in (Greater) Serbian
The BBC in Serbian has joined Serbia in its statements that St. Vladimir belongs to Serbia. This is just one in a series of examples of how international media brands such as the BBC, CNN, Euronews and DW are being misused to spread Serbian influence in the region. Yesterday, I called on Minister Krivokapic to react to this. I hope they will listen to me, as in the Injac case.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
