Good morning! The green prime minister is driving his speed boat using fossil fuel, his ministers promote consumerism and they all together appoint agents of Russian influence at the government’s sessions. Montenegro – the twilight zone.
Who’s Nebojsa Juskovic?
I haven’t dealt with Budva this week, but a friend of mine called me yesterday morning to ask if I knew about the new committee of commissioners. The old one was dismissed because it was causing problems for Carevic. Allegedly, the new administration elected new members of the committee, naming a famous Nebojsa Juskovic, whose work I find interesting for several years already. He’s a leader of a body called the ‘Democratic Party of Unity’, the leader of the branch of veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, a club loved by local priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as an official of various all-Slavic associations. Juskovic is often in Russia, not hiding his love for this country.
He met with many Russian officials along with his friend, Igor Damjanovic, a propagandist who is encouraging the occupying forces from the front lines in Ukraine these days. By a brief look at his Facebook profile, you’ll see selfies with the Russian patriarch, deputy defense minister, Putin’s envoys, intelligence officers, etc. In addition to all this, Juskovic has been an official of the Ministry of Finance all these years, since the rule of the DPS-SDP government, and maybe even earlier.
Rasko Konjevic, being prone to answering tweets and comments, was silent all day yesterday on my question about this. The prime minister responded, saying he didn’t believe anyone could be elected to two positions and that it was frivolous to designate people as pro-NATO and pro-Russian. The fact is that at the last session of the government, Juskovic was proposed as a member of compulsory administration in Budva and a member of the assembly of SMATSA, the Serbian agency regulating air traffic on our sky. Juskovic was the candidate for director of the Civil Aviation Agency during the mandate of the Krivokapic-Abazovic government, but wasn’t elected.
Green hypocrisy
A video showing Dritan Abazovic taking a speedboat ride along the Bojana river went viral two days ago – the speedboat with the most powerful Mercury engine, which spends a lot on fuel. Several years ago, while he was an opposition MP, it was a trend to drive it and take the selfie. And it was somewhat charming. Over the past two years, since he came to power, Abazovic takes less pics with activists and more with his party and coalition colleagues, while the motorboat Pasara is replaced with the afore-mentioned speedboat belonging to his unnamed friend.
The fact is that high salaries in the government boost the quality of life of former opposition members, but, if we could inspect the former government and talk about their watches and handbags, we can inspect the current government members as well. Particularly having in mind that new officials came to power by criticizing luxury and consumerism of ex-leaders. Instead of changing the culture of the previous elite, new leaders, who used to criticize them, now are behaving by using the same behavioral patterns, showing off their designer clothes/accessories and wealth.
To be clear: there’s nothing wrong about being rich, rich individuals make a rich society. But wealth, which is a product of creating added value, wealth that comes as a reward for hard work, entrepreneurship and effort. Not the one which is a product of parasitism on the state budget.
Open issues with Serbia
The PM is in Serbia as of tomorrow. It’ll be interesting to watch his guest appearances. In its analysis, RSE (Radio Free Europe) underlined five open issues which burden the relations between the two countries: Open Balkans, Fundamental Agreement with the SPC, appointment of ambassador, Svetozar Marovic and harassment of Montenegrin MPs.
Montenegro should have introduced reciprocity in its relations with Serbia, but it seems that our government’s strategy is to be even more humiliating and dependent on Serbia.
That’s all for today. Until tomorrow.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
