The activities of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), as one of the most important and influential social organizations in Montenegro, both decades ago and particularly emphasized in the past year, showed that its interest is only to expand its own influence and power, says the executive director of the Center for Civic Education Daliborka Uljarevic. She assesses that the SPC today can be satisfied with the Government and the ruling majority, because all of them, as she says, are more afraid of the wrath of this religious community than the citizens whose votes indirectly brought them where they are.
“Meanwhile, the SPC organization has changed over the past year, rare constructive tones have been marginalized, and some outlines of more autonomous action have been lost, as a result of changes in the balance of power in the authorities of the metropolitan and the patriarch, which is taken advantage of by the always prepared President of Serbia in his own way. In that constellation, it is unlikely that the interests of this Church are in the best intentions directed towards the democratization and progress of Montenegro that our citizens deserve”, Uljarevic points out.
“This Government had objective challenges that it dealt with under the burden of high expectations, and to put it mildly, it did not cope with that due to its subjective weaknesses. The arrogance of its leaders only intensifies the dominant dissatisfaction and disappointment expressed in all relevant surveys. Citizens graded it with a poor mark, mostly describing it as conservative, clerical, revanchist, amateur and without the capacity for a reform course”, she explains.
“We had the opportunity to see the opinions of key foreign policy pillars of Montenegro, but also independent Western analysts, through which they warn that the Government has failed”, Uljarevic points out.
“The DPS has distorted the former system of socialism or communism, whatever you call it, by adapting work in public administration and public companies exclusively to party interests. We criticized that in the critically-oriented civil sector and then the opposition political parties. With the election defeat in August 2020, the DPS paid for that part of bad management”, she says.
“Everything after the new structure took power is its responsibility, including taking over the DPS model. (…) The so-called party-affiliated employments in good positions is the clearest example of predatory politicking and dishonest narrative of reforms, and one who does so cannot remove the negative legacy of the DPS”, Uljarevic stresses.
When discussing the Memorandum of Cooperation signed by URA< SNP, Civis and minority parties, Uljarevic says “that the Memorandum provoked a lot of conflicting party reactions, and it is interesting that, according to the last CGpulse from December, it has the support of almost half of the citizens, with their majority belief that it will contribute to overcoming the polarization in society or making an important contribution to democratization and inclusion of minorities. This could also be a message to political stakeholders that citizens are fed up with trench policy-making and want those who represent them to act in the public interest”, Uljarevic points out.
